Fast Facts for September 1, 2021
It’s a late one but this just happened and its important –
The supreme court has allowed one of the most restrictive abortion laws in the country to take effect – by simply doing nothing.
The Supreme Court did not intervene before the deadline so the Texas law went into effect early Wednesday morning. The court could still grant a request from abortion providers to halt the law but they had hoped the supreme court would rule prior to the deadline.
Under this Texas law –abortion is prohibited at six weeks when a fetal heartbeat is detected – which often comes before a woman even knows she’s pregnant. There is no exception for rape or incest although there is an exemption for ‘medical emergencies”. The law says private citizens – from anywhere in the country – can bring civil lawsuits against anyone who assists a pregnant person seeking an abortion in violation of the ban.
Both the Supreme Court and a Federal Appeals court failed to rule on a pending emergency request brought by abortion providers. Those providers asked the Justices to block the ban while legal challenges played out in other courts — arguing if the law took effect, it would “immediately and catastrophically reduce abortion access in Texas.”
Aside from this case – the Supreme Court Justices are scheduled to take up a case out of Mississippi over another controversial law that would ban abortion at 15 weeks in their upcoming session.
Legal scholars say both of these cases are direct challenges to Roe v Wade the landmark 1973 supreme court ruling legalizing abortion nationwide prior to viability which can happen around 22-24 weeks of pregnancy.
