The law that prohibits abortion from the sixth week of pregnancy - that is, when the fetal heartbeat can be detected for the first time - entered into force in the state of Texas in the southern part of the United States on Wednesday, the American press reported on Wednesday.
The legislation came into effect after the federal Supreme Court, which acts as the constitutional court in the United States, did not take action against the Texas law prohibiting abortion, despite urgent requests from abortion rights organizations. According to abortion rights organizations, 85 to 90 percent of abortions performed in the state occur after the sixth week of pregnancy, meaning the law would likely force many clinics to close.
Planned Parenthood, a New York-based nonprofit that operates so-called abortion clinics across the United States, along with other health care providers and doctors challenged the law in July in federal court in Austin, Texas, claiming it violates constitutional right to abortion.
Such a strict ban has not been allowed in any American state since the federal Supreme Court made the precedent-setting Roe/Wade decision nearly half a century ago. On January 22, 1973, the Supreme Court decided to declare the ban on abortion in the first trimester unconstitutional based on the 14th amendment to the constitution, citing the right to privacy. From then on, no state could deny legal, safe abortion to women in the first three months of pregnancy.
The law, signed into law by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott on May 19, gives individuals the power to file civil lawsuits against anyone who violates the law and "aids or advocates" an abortion after the sixth week of pregnancy.
US President Joe Biden also spoke out against the new Texas abortion law, who wrote in a statement on Wednesday: the legislation "clearly violates the constitutional right established in the Roe v. Wade case" and significantly worsens women's access to health care. "My administration is deeply committed to and will defend the constitutional right established in Roe v. Wade nearly five decades ago," Biden said. The president specifically criticized a provision in the law that allows private individuals to sue abortion providers.
At the beginning of May, a referendum was held in the city of Lubbock, also in the state of Texas, to ban abortion completely. Lubbock is the largest city in the United States to ban abortion, joining the ranks of cities bearing the title of "Sanctuary City for the Unborn."
In June 2019, Waskom, Texas became the first city to ban abortion and declare itself a "Sanctuary City for the Unborn." Since then, for example, two cities in the state of Nebraska, Hayes Center and Blue Hill, have also joined. Lubbock was the 26th city in line and, according to the initiators, far from the last.
MTI
Photo: SAUL LOEB / AFP / Europress
