Supreme Court Does Not Act on Texas’ Near-Total Abortion Ban

Some legal scholars argued that the situation was still fluid and that activists for abortion rights were over-interpreting the case.

“The case has been overrated,” said William Baude, a law professor at the University of Chicago, on Wednesday. “The idea that Roe v. Wade de facto overruled if the court didn’t act by last night is not true.”

The challenge to the law remains pending in the lower federal courts, he said, and they are ready to resolve the complex issues in the case.

Still, access to abortion has been severely restricted across the state. Whole Woman’s Health of Fort Worth closed its last patient appointment on Tuesday at 11:56 p.m., said Marva Sadler, senior director of clinical services for the organization. She said doctors started early Tuesday morning and treated 117 patients, far more than usual.

Understand the Texas Abortion Act

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The citizens, not the state, will enforce the law. The law effectively represents ordinary citizens – including those outside of Texas – and allows them to sue clinics and others who violate the law. It will give them at least $ 10,000 per illegal abortion if they are successful.

Silence from the Supreme Court. The Texas Abortion Restriction Act went into effect Wednesday after the Supreme Court failed to honor a motion to block it, causing clinics in the state to refuse women who applied for the procedure.

“It was a perfectly organized mess,” said Ms. Sadler, who had come from San Antonio to help. “The patients waited up to five and six hours for their interventions to be performed.”

She said the patients were waiting in their cars and also in the waiting room. Some were told to come back later. On Wednesday, she said, the clinic was in uncharted territory. Of the 79 people on the schedule, she estimated that around 20 would be able to eventually complete their procedures. Many, she said, were too advanced in pregnancy to be treated under the new law.

“People are confused,” she said. “They don’t know where to go. You do not know what this law is. “

When the law went into effect, the Democrats attacked it, pledging to fight to preserve abortion law in Texas and across the country. In a statement, President Biden said the measure was “manifestly” in violation of the constitutional right to abortion established by Roe v. Wade was set.