Stephen Rogerson
on March 13, 2022
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On Friday, the Texas Supreme Court issued a ruling that will make it far harder for pro-abortion forces to challenge the state’s new heartbeat law. The law, passed in May of last year and signed by Governor Greg Abbott, makes most abortions in Texas illegal once a fetal heartbeat can be detected, which is often as early as six weeks into a pregnancy.
In December, the U.S. Supreme Court allowed the law to remain in place despite a challenge by the Biden administration. But the high court also allowed a challenge against the law to proceed via a narrow road that allows state laws to be challenged by federal officials who can sue state officials administering the law.
On Friday the Texas State Supreme Court ruled that only private citizens, not state officials, can enforce the law, which allows people to sue an abortion provider or assistant who does the procedure after a fetal heartbeat can be detected. That ruling essentially ends the narrow avenue that existed allowing federal officials to challenge the law.
The Texas Heartbeat Law was written in a way designed to prevent overzealous judicial review. It has long been a tactic of pro-abortion forces to attack pro-life laws on technicalities, allowing pro-abortion judges to create work-arounds or to effectively nullify such laws.
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