BOSTON (WWLP) – This week, Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey along with a coalition of 24 additional attorneys general urged the United States Supreme Court to stop Texas’ Senate Bill 8, known better as the recently passed six-week abortion ban.
According to a statement issued by Healey’s office, the Texas law violates the constitutional rights of Texans seeking reproductive health.
“Each day that goes by with this unconstitutional ban in place, countless people suffer irreparable harm,” said AG Healey. “As attorneys general, it is our job to ensure that residents get the care they need, and to protect the rule of law from this transparent scheme. Today we urge the Supreme Court to uphold 50 years of Roe’sbinding precedent by granting the relief desperately needed for patients, families, and providers.”
An amicus brief, filed by the Baystate Attorney General with the Supreme Court in the case of United States of America v. State of Texas et al., pushes the argument that the new law violates nearly fifty-years of legal precedent.
“Most patients now must travel out of state, which makes abortion for many people too difficult, too time-intensive, and too costly,” the brief states. “Consequently, many will now be forced to carry unwanted pregnancies to term, resulting in negative health and socioeconomic consequences for both them and their children. And the harms caused by S.B. 8 are rippling well beyond Texas into other states, as people are forced to seek care elsewhere, in many places overwhelming capacity and threatening our own residents’ access to care.”
Healey is joined in her brief by the attorneys general of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin.