The fight continues against the federal government and the Biden administration for the precious unborn lives in Texas and Mississippi.
In Texas, a federal judge has blocked Joe Biden’s emergency request to stop the Texas abortion ban while the lawsuit against it continues.
SB 8, known as the “Texas Heartbeat Act” abolishes elective abortions when the preborn child’s heartbeat is detectable using methods according to standard medical practice. The bill makes an exception allowing for abortions in the case of a medical emergency but not for rape or incest. It would be enforced by private citizens empowered to sue abortion providers and others who help someone get an abortion after six weeks. Those private citizens would not need to have a connection to an abortion provider or a person seeking an abortion and would not need to be Texas residents.
The law is part of a broader nationwide effort to protect human life. At least 12 other states have enacted bans early in pregnancy. The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in the fall regarding the challenge to Mississippi’s law which prohibits abortion after 15 weeks.
More than a dozen lawsuits have already been filed across the state and federal court system to challenge SB 8. Still more are expected to be filed as pro-abortion rights groups work to throw out a law designed to be difficult to fight.
The lawsuits focused on getting an injunction on the law are challenging its constitutionality. Meanwhile, in Texas state courts, plaintiffs who provide abortions have focused on warding off litigation by seeking injunctive orders against vocal pro-life individuals and groups like Texas Right to Life.
“This relief is necessary to protect the constitutional rights of women in Texas and the sovereign interest of the United States in ensuring that its States respect the terms of the national compact. It is also necessary to protect federal agencies, employees, and contractors whose lawful actions S.B. 8 [the heartbeat law] purports to prohibit,” the Department of Justice argued.
Last week, Xavier Becerra, secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), announced actions toward SB 8 designed to protect unborn children whose hearts have begun to beat. Becerra is using the full weight of HHS to find ways to circumvent the law, in an effort to support abortion on demand.
HHS’ actions raise questions. Besides providing $10 million to abortionists and abortion facilities embroiled by SB 8, the government potentially forcing doctors and providers opposed to abortion to provide them under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act. This shows how deeply this administration is in league with the abortion industry.
Weeks ago, the U.S. Supreme Court refused Planned Parenthood’s and other pro-abortion groups’ request to temporarily block Texas’ SB 8.
About 54,000 unborn babies were aborted in Texas in 2020 and about 85 percent of the abortions were performed happened after six weeks of pregnancy, according to state health statistics. SB 8 is already saving lives. While abortion activists say some women are traveling to other states for abortions, they admit that others are choosing to have their babies instead.
The U.S. Supreme Court announced Monday it will hear oral arguments on Dec. 1 regarding the Mississippi Gestational Age Act that was passed in 2018 and would only allow abortions after 15 weeks in medical emergencies or for severe fetal abnormality. The law has no exceptions for rape or incest. If an abortion is performed outside those parameters, doctors will have their medical licenses suspended or revoked and may be subject to additional penalties and fines.
While the justices consider the Mississippi case Dobbs vs. Jackson Women’s Health Organization over the next few months, reading friend-of-the-court briefs and holding oral arguments in December, they took an emergency action in a separate case out of Texas earlier this month. The High Court allowed a six-week ban to go into effect, pending appeal, blocking most abortions in the state.
The attorney who will make Mississippi’s oral arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court is the State Solicitor General, Scott G. Stewart, a former clerk for Justice Clarence Thomas.
The Mississippi attorneys wrote that if the Supreme Court does not overturn the standard that abortion restrictions should face heightened scrutiny. The court at a minimum should hold that there is no pre-viability barrier to state prohibitions on abortion and uphold Mississippi’s law. The Mississippi attorneys wrote that circumstances for women have changed since the 1973 and 1992 Supreme Court rulings.
In July, Liberty Counsel filed an amicus brief on behalf of a diverse group of organizations, churches, religious leaders, and individuals, including 70,000 African American and Hispanic churches and millions of African Americans and Hispanic Americans across the United States, who are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade as it supports racist eugenics that must be rejected.
Liberty Counsel represents Rev. Samuel Rodriguez and the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference; Chairman Dean Nelson and the Frederick Douglass Foundation; Rev. Alveda King, the niece of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Speak for Life; the Catholic Diocese of Tyler, Texas; Bishop Joseph Edward Strickland; Deacon Keith Fournier, Esq., General Counsel for the Catholic Diocese of Tyler, Texas; and the Common Good Foundation. This broad group of African Americans, Hispanics, Roman Catholics and Protestants join together in support of Mississippi requesting the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the 1973 abortion opinion of Roe v. Wade and its subsequent abortion cases.
Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, “We are seeing state after state standing up for human life. The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to hear this Mississippi case is a positive step toward finally overturning the tragic decision of Roe v. Wade. Abortion takes the life of an innocent human being and has enormous physical and psychological consequences on the mother. It’s time to stop committing human genocide in this nation.”
