State judge rules citizen enforcement of Texas abortion law unconstitutional

A judge in Texas ruled Thursday that a law banning abortion after about six weeks goes against the state’s constitution by allowing individuals to sue abortion providers.

State District Court Judge David Peeples ruled on a controversial Texas law prohibiting abortion after a fetal heartbeat is detected, usually after about six weeks and when many women are unaware that they are pregnant.

Abortion providers have signaled that despite the ruling, they are unlikely to retry the trial until a ruling from the US Supreme Court is awaited. The law, which went into effect in September, bans virtually all abortion in Texas, the second most populous US state.

Texas Right to Life, an anti-abortion group that supported the law, immediately appealed Thursday’s ruling.

The law was designed to avoid normal legal remedies because instead of holding state officials accountable for enforcement, it gives individuals everywhere the right to sue doctors and others who perform abortions after six weeks in Texas.

Peeples ruled that the law gave legal personality to unconstitutional persons who were not violated and constituted an “unlawful delegation of enforcement authority to a private individual”.

The US Supreme Court heard arguments on Texas law last month and is expected to deliver a verdict in the coming weeks.

The state’s highest court also heard arguments earlier this month over a restrictive Republican-backed Mississippi bill, designed as a direct challenge to the landmark Roe v. Wade of the 1973 court which legalized the trial nationwide.

In oral hearings on December 1st, conservative judges who have a 6: 3 majority in court signaled their willingness to drastically restrict abortion law in the United States. A verdict on Mississippi law is expected by summer.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/state-judge-rules-citizen-enforcement-texas-abortion-law-unconstitutional-n1285712