The New Orleans federal appeals court allowed Texas to reinstate the controversial law banning most abortions in the state. Entered into force on September 1, this law prohibits abortion once the heartbeat of the embryo is detected, at around six weeks of pregnancy – when most women do not yet know they are pregnant. She had been temporarily blocked Wednesday by a Texas federal judge following an appeal by the Biden administration.
The appeal to the federal court in New Orleans
“This court will not allow this shocking deprivation of such an important right to continue another day,” the judge wrote in his decision. Abortions beyond six weeks were then resumed in state clinics. Texas Attorney General, Republican Ken Paxton, appealed to the New Orleans Federal Court, considered one of the most conservative in the country, which ruled in his favor. “Big news tonight,” Paxton tweeted as soon as the appeal decision was released. “I will fight the excesses of the federal government at all times,” he added.
The government is likely to contest
In all likelihood, the US federal government will challenge the appeals court’s decision to the US Supreme Court. The latter guaranteed in 1973, in its emblematic Roe v. Wade ruling, the right of women to have an abortion and specified that it applied until the fetus is viable, that is, around 22 weeks of pregnancy. In recent years, laws comparable to those in Texas have been passed by a dozen other conservative states and sentenced in court for violating that law.
What the law provides
Texas law, enacted by Republican Governor Greg Abbott in May, prohibits termination of pregnancy from the moment a heartbeat is detected, about six weeks, a time when a woman may not even know she is pregnant. It also authorizes anyone, anywhere in the United States, to report infringers.