Tue Nov 2, 2021 – 3:37 pm EDT
WASHINGTON (LifeSiteNews) — Oral arguments before the United States Supreme Court began Monday over a Texas law banning abortion once a heartbeat is detectable, with several observers expressing alarm that the court’s newest Republican justices appeared sympathetic to the abortion lobby’s legal claims.
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. Its unique enforcement mechanism, which “exclusively” empowers private citizens to bring civil suits against abortionists instead of state prosecutions, has been credited for the Supreme Court’s prior September decision not to block it from taking effect.
The court heard two sets of arguments regarding the law, one concerning Texas abortionists’ challenge to its enforcement mechanism, and the other concerning the federal government’s challenge to the law. Neither case directly concerns the substance of the Texas Heartbeat Act, but whether the plaintiffs’ petitions seeking injunctions against the law have the standing to proceed.
One major sticking point was whether the courts could review the law at all in light of the fact
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