The United States Department of Justice filed on Thursday (09.09.2021) a lawsuit against the state of Texas for its new law that prohibits abortions after six weeks of gestation. “The law is clearly unconstitutional,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said at a press conference, and “the Department of Justice has an obligation to uphold the US Constitution and the rule of law.” “Today we are fulfilling that duty by filing the lawsuit,” he added.
The lawsuit comes after President Joe Biden branded the law “almost anti-American” and criticized the Supreme Court’s refusal to block it, vowing to launch a “government-wide effort” to repeal the law, which took effect on June 1. passed September 1 in Texas and bans virtually all abortions, with no exceptions for cases of incest or rape.
“Texas law is clearly unconstitutional under a long Supreme Court precedent,” Garland added in his press conference. The lawsuit, filed in a federal court in Austin, Texas, seeks to block this law and “protect the rights that Texas has violated.”
Earlier this week, Garland promised that the Justice Department would step in to enforce a federal law known as the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrance Act. That law, commonly known as the FACE Act, prohibits blocking access to abortion clinics or intimidating or interfering with those who want to access them. It also prohibits damaging property in abortion clinics and other reproductive health centers.
Texas law is the nation’s greatest obstacle against abortion since the Supreme Court affirmed in the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade that women have a constitutional right to abortion.
lgc (ap / afp / efe)
– .
