The US Department of Justice is suing Texas to stop new abortion law

Last updated yesterday 22:05

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The lawsuit was filed in Texas on Thursday.

The Department of Justice is asking the court to declare the law invalid as the department believes it was enacted in violation of the U.S. Constitution.

“The law is clearly unconstitutional,” Justice Minister Merrick Garland told a news conference the same day.

– The Department of Justice has a duty to defend the United States Constitution, and maintain law and order. Today, we fulfill that duty by going to court, he added.

From the sixth week

The Abortion Act, passed by the Texas state legislature, prohibits abortion from the moment it is possible to record the fetal heartbeat, which is usually possible when a woman is six weeks pregnant.

This is before many women are aware that they are pregnant.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, signed the law in May. It was appealed to the Supreme Court, but in early September it became clear that the court would not block the new law.

That led President Joe Biden to say that the Supreme Court’s decision was “an attack on women’s constitutional rights.”

Private individuals can sue

Similar laws have been passed in a number of other Republican-ruled states, but so far all have been stopped in lower federal courts because they violate Roe vs. The Wade ruling in the United States Supreme Court in 1973, which establishes women’s right to abortion.

The new abortion law in Texas differs from other states’ attempts to tighten abortion laws in that it leaves it to individuals to file civil lawsuits against those who either contribute to or have an abortion performed.

Recently, the pressure on the Ministry of Justice has increased, not only from the White House, but also from Democrats in Congress who wanted the Minister of Justice to do something to stop the law.

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