A federal judge has granted a request by the Department of Justice to temporarily block enforcement of Texas’ new law that banned nearly all abortions in the state and left enforcement to vigilante bounty hunters.
The ruling by Federal District Court Judge Robert L. Pitman in Austin puts the law on hold as the legal dispute over its constitutionality makes its way through the federal court system.
Pitman’s 113-page ruling sided with the Biden administration which had sued to halt the law that prohibits women from obtaining an abortion after six weeks of pregnancy.
“From the moment S.B. 8 went into effect, women have been unlawfully prevented from exercising control over their own lives in ways that are protected by the Constitution,” Pitman wrote in his opinion.
"This Court will not sanction one more day of this offensive deprivation of such an important right."
Pitman added.
“It is ordered that the State of Texas, including its officers, officials, agents, employees and any other persons or entities acting on its behalf, are preliminarily enjoined from enforcing Texas Health and Safety Code,” Judge Pitman wrote.
Attorney General Merrick Garland welcomed the ruling in a statement:
“Today’s ruling enjoining the Texas law is a victory for women in Texas and for the rule of law. It is the foremost responsibility of the Department of Justice to defend the Constitution. We will continue to protect constitutional rights against all who would seek to undermine them.”
Reuters reported that Texas immediately notified the court that it intends to appeal the ruling to the conservative-leaning Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.
In early September, the U.S. Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision, declined to block the Texas law and allowed it to go into effect. The high court did not rule on whether the law and its unorthodox vigilante enforcement method were constitutional.
The Supreme Court’s decision was seen as a sign that the court’s conservative majority was ready to overturn the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. This fall the court is to hear a case on a Mississippi law that bans abortions after 15-weeks.
In the weeks after the Texas law went into effect, Texas women were forced to scramble to find abortion providers in nearby states.
Meanwhile, other Republican-controlled states, such as Florida, were preparing restrictive abortion laws modeled after Texas’ statute.
The DOJ sued Texas last month over its abortion law, known as SB8, which banned the procedure once cardiac activity can be detected in an embryo, usually after about six weeks of pregnancy. Women often don’t even know they are pregnant during that time period. The law did not make any exceptions for pregnancies resulting from rape or incest.
The Texas law tried to skirt around Roe v. Wade by putting enforcement in the hands of private citizens who could sue anyone who performs or aids and abets an abortion. Plaintiffs stood to receive at least $10,000 and recover their legal fees if they won the lawsuit.
The Texas law does contain fine print that says if an injunction blocking the law is reversed, lawsuits can still be filed up to four years after the abortion at issue is performed.
An appeal of Pitman’s ruling would be heard by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, which is one of the country’s most conservative federal appellate courts.
But MSNBC legal analyst Neal Katyal predicted that the appellate court would not overturn Pitman’s ruling because Roe v. Wade remains the law of the land. Only the U.S. Supreme Court could overturn Roe.
The Washington Post reported that Texas clinics welcomed Pitman’s ruling:
“This is amazing! Finally, the justice we have been waiting for,” said Amy Hagstrom Miller, founder and chief executive of Whole Woman’s Health, which has clinics in Fort Worth, McKinney and Austin.
Whole Woman’s Health said the group was “making plans to resume abortion care up to 18 weeks as soon as possible.”
Pitman was nominated by President Barack Obama in 2014 to serve as a U.S. District Court Judge for the Western District of Texas. He was confirmed by a voice vote in the Senate.
John Seago, legislative director of Texas Right to Life, told the Post that Pitman’s order is “astonishing and an incredible overreach from a federal judge onto state courts.”
Here is some more reaction to Judge Pitman’s ruling: