(RightIsRight.co) – The right to life is one that Americans will likely fight for decades to come. In Texas, pro-life groups celebrated an enormous victory on Wednesday, May 19, when their Governor Greg Abbott (R) signed a law that banned abortions after health professionals can detect a fetal heartbeat, typically around 6 weeks gestation.
The law went into effect on Wednesday, September 1, but not without a fight from pro-choice groups and abortion providers who petitioned the Supreme Court (SCOTUS) to intervene.
SCOTUS Denies Emergency Appeal
Just hours before the Texas law went into effect, SCOTUS held a vote in the middle of the night to consider whether or not the suit Whole Woman’s Health et al. v. Austin Reeve Jackson, Judge et al. met the burden required to temporarily halt the law from going into effect. The court voted 5-4, with Chief Justice John Roberts joining the three liberal justices in their dissent. So, for now, the nation’s highest court upheld the law.
The unsigned order simply states the lawsuit, as provided, did not meet the standards necessary to stay the law. It emphasized that the court did not come to “any conclusion about the constitutionality of Texas’s law.”
Watching the Law Take Effect
In 2019, data shows Texas abortionists performed at least 56,600 abortions in the state. Thus, Texan lawmakers who proposed the law hope that it will save the next 50,000+ lives.
The law allows private citizens to sue anyone who helps women receive an abortion, from a counselor who suggests it to the doctor who performs it. This new law is the strictest of its kind in the nation, and understandably, abortion providers have begun to cut back.
According to reports, both Planned Parenthood and Whole Woman’s Health, two enormous abortion providers, stopped scheduling abortion appointments after September 1. Most experts, including New York University law professor Melissa Murray, believe many clinics will shut down “even if the law is later found unconstitutional.”
New Challenges Are Sure to Come, But for Now, Babies Are Safer Than Ever
Abortion groups are livid about the new law, and challenges to it will likely be swift and thorough. Americans will get more insight into whether or not this law will stay on the books after SCOTUS issues a ruling later this fall on Mississippi’s law banning abortions after 15 weeks.
With the conservative majority currently on the court after the addition of Justice Amy Coney Barrett last year, these life-saving laws have a fighting chance of remaining on the books for years to come.
Copyright 2021, RightIsRight.co
