US court reinstates law prohibiting most abortions in Texas

US court reinstates law prohibiting most abortions in Texas

In the face of questions from various organizations and a complaint from the Joe Biden government, the law was temporarily blocked by a federal judge in Texas, the AFP news agency recalled.

But the attorney general of that state governed by the Republican Party, Ken Paxton, appealed that ruling before the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, one of the most conservative in the country, which finally agreed with him.

“The Supreme Court must step in and stop this madness”Nancy Northup, president of the NGO Center for Reproductive Rights, which defends abortion rights, said in a statement.

“This cruel law harshly affects those who already suffer discrimination in access to medical care”added.

The judge who had temporarily blocked the law, Robert Pitman, described it as “flagrantly unconstitutional” and in violation of the precedent set by the Supreme Court in the case of Roe vs. Wade, which in 1973 guaranteed the right to abortion until the fetus is viable outside the uterus; around 22 weeks of pregnancy.

“That other courts find a way to avoid this conclusion is something for them to decide. This court will not admit one more day this offensive deprivation of such an important right”said the magistrate appointed to the post by Democratic President Barack Obama.

His order was issued in response to a lawsuit from the Justice Department that sought to prevent Texas, the second most populous state in the country, from enforcing its restrictive law that makes no exceptions even for cases of rape or incest.

The now reinstated law allows anyone to sue doctors who perform abortions when the fetus’s heartbeat is detected as well as whoever facilitates the procedure.

Whistleblowers can be awarded $ 10,000 for initiating cases that go to trial. That has led to the law being denounced also for inciting people to act as vigilantes.

Other Republican-ruled states passed restrictive abortion laws but were struck down in court because they violated the Roe v. Wade precedent.

While reproductive rights defenders managed to stop most of these measures, some 97 were enacted, making 2021 the most “devastating” year against the ILE in the United States, according to data from the Guttmacher Institute, which denounced a “campaign national and coordinated “of the conservative movement.

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