Texas Supreme Court deals major blow to lawsuit challenging heartbeat abortion ban By Michael Gryboski, for Christian Post
Texas’ highest court has recommended that a lawsuit against the state’s law banning abortion as early as six weeks gestation should be dismissed because state officials are not enforcing the pro-life measure.
The Texas Supreme Court ruled Friday in the case of Whole Woman’s Health et al. v. Jackson et al. that officials at state medical licensing boards cannot enforce the law, which bans nearly all abortions after an unborn baby’s heartbeat can be detected, which is usually around six weeks into a pregnancy.
Since the law allows for private citizens to enforce the ban instead, the decision by the state’s highest court effectively defeats the lawsuit brought by pro-choice groups.
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Texas Right to Life, a pro-life group that supports the heartbeat abortion ban, celebrated the Texas Supreme Court’s opinion in a statement telling supporters that the ruling was a “big victory.”
“We have said from the beginning that abortionists’ lawsuit should be dismissed,” the lobbying group stated.
“The Legislature clearly never intended state agencies to participate in enforcing the Texas Heartbeat Act, and the Supreme Court of Texas agreed. This is not the final step in the journey, as the case will now return to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, but it affirms a positive path forward for the historic law.”
The Center for Reproductive Rights, which helped to bring the litigation against the law, concludes that the lawsuit is effectively dead. Among the legal attempts to stop the Texas law, the abortion-rights group contends this lawsuit was “once the most promising.”
But now, the Texas Supreme Court has ruled that the lawsuit can’t proceed against the Texas Medical Board and state licensing officials, the only remaining defendants.
