Major abortion groups assemble, file lawsuit over ‘unthinkable’ Texas law allowing Americans to sue abortion clinics, doctors
Mary Margaret Olohan, DCNF
Texas abortion groups filed a lawsuit Tuesday against the state’s new law giving Americans the right to sue abortion clinics or individuals who help mothers obtain abortions within the state.
Whole Women’s Health and a number of Planned Parenthood affiliates and clinics filed the lawsuit Tuesday in the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas, arguing that the Heartbeat Act (which the abortion providers refer to as Senate Bill 8) “flagrantly violates the constitutional rights of Texans seeking abortion and upends the rule of law in service of an anti-abortion agenda.”
“The Texas legislature’s well-documented hostility to the rights of pregnant people has gone to a new extreme,” the lawsuit said. The plaintiffs are represented by the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, the American Civil Liberties Union, and the Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR).
“Not on our watch,” ACLU policy counsel and senior staff attorney Adriana Piñon said in a press release of the Texas law. “Anti-abortion politicians may think it can use Texans like pawns in their ideological and extremist fight. But we’re calling their bluff, and will do everything we can to stop this dangerous law.”
#BREAKING: We're suing #Texas. Joined by Whole Woman's Health (@wholewomans) and a broad coalition of abortion providers and others who assist patients in accessing abortion, we’ve filed a lawsuit to block the state's radical new law banning abortion as early as six weeks. pic.twitter.com/zr5ocEG8xK
— Center for Reproductive Rights (@ReproRights) July 13, 2021
Texas’ Heartbeat Act, signed into law May 19, bans abortions after the unborn baby‘s heartbeat can be detected (usually by about six weeks) and makes exceptions for medical emergencies but not in cases of rape or incest.
