US sues Texas over abortion law

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."

Women's choice is 'not negotiable'

Vice President Kamala Harris said women's rights and decisions involving their own bodies is not up for discussion. 

"The right of women to make decisions about their own bodies is not negotiable," Harris 

"The right of women to make decisions about their own bodies is their decision, it is their body and no legislative institution has the right to circumvent the constitution of the United States."

Court inaction prompts DOJ response

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

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

DW’s Washington correspondent Stefan Simons said the Supreme Court's decision has put it on a collision course with the Department of Justice.

"There was a five to four decision by the Supreme Court last week to not interfere, to not hear or honor the requests of pro-abortion institutions or NGOs asking this law to be stopped," Simons told DW from the US capital.

"The Supreme Court decided five to four that it won't do this, so now the DOJ, Department of Justice, federal department of justice is stepping in," Simons said.

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. 

Speaking to DW News’s Brent Goff, Simons said there is concern among pro-abortion groups that other states could follow Texas.

“It’s the most restrictive law in the entire United States, and you know what, the problem many people see or many observers and many pro-abortion organizations say is that other states will jump on this, Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi,” Simons said.

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.

kb,sms/cmk (AP, AFP, Reuters)