US sues Texas over abortion law

Washington, Sep 10: The US Justice Department is suing Texas over a new state law that bans most abortions, saying it was enacted "in open defiance of the Constitution."

A lawsuit filed Thursday in a Texas federal court calls on judges to declare the law invalid, prevent it from being enforced and "protect the rights that Texas has violated."

The Texas law prohibits abortions after medical professionals detect cardiac activity — usually around six weeks after conception, a point at which some women do not know they are pregnant.

'Clearly unconstitutional'

"The act is clearly unconstitutional," Attorney General Merrick Garland said, adding that a state may not prohibit any woman from making the decision to terminate her pregnancy before a viability.

He also said the Texas law deputizes private citizens to serves as "bounty hunters" and that the Justice Department had filed the suit because it had the responsibility "to ensure no state can deprive individuals of their constitutional rights."

US President Joe Biden has said the law is "almost un-American."

However, the US Supreme Court has refused to block the law.

A challenge to a legal right

Many see the Texas law as the biggest curb to abortion in the United States since the 1973 Supreme Court affirmation of a constitutional right to an abortion set out in the Roe v. Wade decision.

Abortion providers have said they will comply with the law, but some of Texas' roughly two dozen abortion clinics have temporarily stopped offering abortion services. Clinics in neighboring states, meanwhile, said they have seen a surge in patients from Texas.

Source: DW