The Supreme Court in Washington scheduled a hearing on November 1st on the controversial so-called heartbeat law. The government of US President Joe Biden had requested that the Texas law, which prohibits abortion from around the sixth week of pregnancy, immediately repealed. The White House argued that it was “clearly unconstitutional.”
The law has been in force since the beginning of September. In early October, a federal judge granted an urgent motion by President Biden’s government and temporarily suspended the abortion law by way of an injunction. A court of appeal subsequently overturned this decision. The law thus came into force again in the conservative state in the southern United States.
The strictest abortion law in the United States prohibits abortions from the point at which the fetus’s heartbeat can be determined, i.e. from around the sixth week of pregnancy. Many women do not even know at this point that they are pregnant. Even in the event of rape or incest, Texan law does not provide for any exceptions.
There is also outrage that it is not the Texan authorities that are supposed to enforce the new regulations, but private individuals. Citizens are encouraged to sue people they suspect of assisting women with an abortion after the sixth week. In addition to abortion clinics and their employees, this could also affect relatives or a taxi driver who has brought a pregnant woman to the clinic. Whistleblowers will receive $ 10,000 if convicted.
Abortion law is one of the most competitive social issues in the United States. In 1973 the Supreme Court anchored the fundamental right of women to an abortion in its landmark judgment “Roe v. Wade”. But women’s rights activists fear that constitutional judges could overturn or curtail this landmark ruling if they deal with a Mississippi state abortion law on December 1.
