Fri Sep 17, 2021 – 2:58 pm EDT
HOUSTON (LifeSiteNews) — U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman rejected a request from the Biden administration to block Texas’s recently-enacted ban on abortion after a heartbeat is detectable, continuing the state’s de facto suspension of abortions after six weeks while the argument over the law’s constitutionality works its way through the system.
Signed in May and put into effect on September 1, the Texas Heartbeat Act requires abortionists to screen for a preborn baby’s heartbeat and prohibits abortion if a heartbeat can be heard (generally as early as six weeks), with exceptions only for medical emergencies.
Instead of having the state prosecute violators, the law “exclusively” empowers private citizens to bring civil suits against abortionists, punishable by a minimum of $10,000 in statutory relief per abortion plus whatever additional injunctive relief is deemed “sufficient to prevent the defendant from violating this chapter or engaging in acts that aid or abet violations of this chapter.”
This unique enforcement mechanism has been credited for the U.S. Supreme Court’s surprising decision not to block the law from taking effect, as well as the decisions of abortion chains Planned Parenthood and Whole Woman’s
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