“The act is clearly unconstitutional under long standing Supreme Court precedent,” said US Attorney General Merrick Garland.
Today the Department of Justice filed a lawsuit, suing Texas over Senate Bill 8, also known as the heartbeat bill. That's the new restrictive abortion law that went into effect on September 1, it bans abortions after six weeks and empowers anyone to sue someone who has assisted in an abortion.
Garland said Senate Bill 8 is designed to prevent women from exercising their constitutional rights but thwarting judicial review for as long as possible.
The Supreme Court had declined to grant an emergency injunction temporarily halting the law until it is heard by the court. “They've argued that constitutionally a woman 's right to have an abortion up to viability has been the law of the land and continues to be the law of the land,” Wendy Davis told CBS Austin. She is the former state senator who filibustered to prevent the passage of another abortion law in 2013.
“What the DOJ is saying is that this law clearly conflicts with Roe v Wade, which is today the law of the land and it should not be allowed to go into effect,” she said.
Texas Right to Life has an embattled whistleblower website for people to turn in people who violate the new law. The organization thinks the new lawsuit won’t change anything. “Texas Right to Life's view on this is that it’s an audacious lawsuit that is ignoring the fact that the US Supreme Court, the judiciary hasn't decided the law is unconstitutional yet,” said Rebecca Parma. But some move was expected from the Biden administration.
Texas Right to Life says while the DOJ is suing the state of Texas, the law is written so that it is not the state enforcing it, it is citizens and it remains to be seen how that will play out in court.
Senate Bill 8 bans abortions after six weeks and empowers anyone to be able to sue someone for helping a woman get an abortion for 10 thousand dollars.