BY CARRIE N. BAKER | On Wednesday, a federal district court in Texas temporarily blocked the state’s six-week abortion ban in a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Department of Justice. Since the Supreme Court allowed the law to go into effect on September 1, the ban has forced most Texans to travel out of the state for abortion health care or continue unwanted pregnancies, while others are self-managing abortions by ordering pills online.
In a 113-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman in Austin ruled that the law—S.B. 8—is an unconstitutional violation of the right to abortion established by the Supreme Court cases of Roe v. Wade and Casey v. Planned Parenthood.
“From the moment S.B. 8 went into effect, women have been unlawfully prevented from exercising control over their lives in ways that are protected by the Constitution,” said Pitman. “This court will not sanction one more day of this offensive deprivation of such an important right.”
|