On Friday, Texas’s Supreme Court unanimously ruled against abortion providers, dealing a final blow to their challenge to the state’s abortion ban – the most restrictive abortion law in the nation.
“Texas law does not grant the state-agency executives named as defendants in this case any authority to enforce the Act’s requirements, either directly or indirectly,” the court ruled.
The court explained, “Senate Bill 8 provides that its requirements may be enforced by a private civil action, that no state official may bring or participate as a party in any such action, that such an action is the exclusive means to enforce the requirements, and that these restrictions apply notwithstanding any other law.”
“Based on these provisions, we conclude that Texas law does not grant the state-agency executives named as defendants in this case any authority to enforce the Act’s requirements, either directly or indirectly,” the court continued.
Texas’s SB 8, which bans abortions when cardiac activity can be detected from a baby, was particularly controversial as it allowed private citizens to sue anyone who “knowingly engages in conduct that aids or abets the performance or inducement of an abortion.”
“In the novel legal strategy, the state Legislature designed the law to prevent government officials from directly enforcing it. The move was meant to make it much more difficult to bring a pre-enforcement challenge because there are not the usual government officials to hold accountable in court,” CNN explained. “Instead, the law allows private citizens — anywhere in the country — to bring civil suits against anyone who assists a pregnant person seeking an abortion in violation of the ban.”
The first month after the law was implemented, abortions in Texas fell by 60%, according to data from the Texas Health and Human Services Commission.
“The nearly 2,200 abortions reported by Texas providers in September came after a new law took effect that bans the procedure once cardiac activity is detected, usually around six weeks of pregnancy and without exceptions in cases of rape or incest,” The New York Post reported. “In August, there had been more than 5,400 abortions statewide. State health officials said more data will be released on a monthly basis.”