High court keeps Texas abortion law, sets hearing

(22 Oct 2021) FOR CLEAN VERSION SEE STORY NUMBER: 4349754

The U.S. Supreme Court is allowing the Texas law that bans most abortions to remain in place, but has agreed to hear arguments in the case in early November.
The justices said Friday they will decide whether the federal government has the right to sue over the law. Answering that question will help determine whether the law should be blocked while legal challenges continue. The court is moving at an unusually fast pace that suggests it plans to make a decision quickly. Arguments are set for Nov. 1.
The court's action leaves in place for the time being a law that clinics say has led to an 80% reduction in abortions in the nation's second-largest state.
The Texas law has been in effect since September, aside from a district court-ordered pause that lasted just 48 hours, and bans abortions once cardiac activity is detected, usually around six weeks and before some women know they are pregnant.
"Other states have passed similar laws, but those laws have been blocked by federal courts. This law is different because the way it's enforced is different," said Mark Sherman, a Supreme Court reporter for the Associated Press.
"Rather than have state officials enforce the law, Texas allows private citizens to sue to enforce the law. And by doing that, it has so far avoided review in federal court," Sherman added.
The justices said in their order that they were deferring action on a request from the Justice Department to put the law on hold. Sherman said Justice Sonia Sotomayor was the only justice to write a dissenting opinion about the Texas abortion case today.
"(Sotomayor) said the law is plainly unconstitutional and the court should have stepped in to block it immediately," Sherman said.
The Justice Department filed suit over the law after the Supreme Court rejected an earlier effort by abortion providers to put the measure on hold temporarily.
The High court has also agreed to hear an appeal in early December from Mississippi asking it to overrule the precedent-setting decisions made in Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey.

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