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A federal judge temporarily blocked enforcement of Texas’s controversial six-week abortion ban late Wednesday, delivering an early victory to the Biden administration in its legal challenge to the law.
In a 113-page order, U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman of Austin said the law is an “offensive deprivation of such an important right” and said state actors, including judges and court clerks, can no longer enforce its provisions.
“A person’s right under the Constitution to choose to obtain an abortion prior to fetal viability is well established,” Pitman wrote. “Fully aware that depriving its citizens of this right by direct state action would be flagrantly unconstitutional, (Texas) contrived an unprecedented and transparent statutory scheme to do just that.”
One hour after his ruling was released, the state notified Pitman that it planned to file an appeal with the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. The case could eventually make its way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which previously declined to intervene and stop the law from going into effect on Sept. 1.
The law prohibits most abortions after six weeks of pregnancy and allows private individuals to sue abortion providers or those who aid and abet procedures that violate the law. Successful litigants can collect $10,000.
There has already been at least one lawsuit filed against a doctor who performed an abortion since the law went into effect.
Pitman said “people seeking abortions face irreparable harm when they are unable to access abortions” and that temporarily blocking Texas’ law from going into effect would allow abortions to proceed “at least for some subset of affected individuals.”
“From the moment (the law) went into effect, women have been unlawfully prevented from exercising control over their lives in ways that are protected by the Constitution,” he wrote.
In a statement, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said that the decision “is a victory for women in Texas and for the rule of law.”
