The US Supreme Court, in a 5-4 vote, refused to block a controversial abortion law in Texas from going into effect on 1 September. The law bans assisting a woman in procuring an abortion after six weeks of pregnancy, and allows private citizens to sue those violating the law and claim a US$10,000 bounty if they prevail in court.
The majority did not rule on the legal status of abortion one way or the other but argued no action had been taken under the new law that would justify its intervention, nor that its implementation would cause irreparable harm to those seeking a stay in its implementation. The court has already agreed to hear a Mississippi case this autumn in which the court will have the opportunity to overturn the 1973 decision, Roe v. Wade, which established a woman’s constitutional right to an abortion and the 1992 decision Planned Parenthood v. Caseywhich barred the placement of any “undue burden” on a woman’s right to procure an abortion.
The Chief Justice of the United States, John Roberts, sided with the high court’s three liberal justices in urging the court to block the new law, citing the strange provision by which the state of Texas delegated enforcement to private citizens. “I would grant preliminary relief to preserve the status quo ante — before the law went into effect — so that the courts may consider whether a state can avoid responsibility for its laws in such a manner,” Roberts wrote in dissent.
The unusual enforcement provision is probably the reason the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, which has led the fight against legal abortion for six decades, issued no public statement on the Texas law or on the Supreme Court’s decision.
Abortion clinics throughout Texas began denying abortion services to women who were more than 6 weeks pregnant, however. Uber and Lyft, two taxi-like companies, promised that they would provide legal assistance to any of their drivers who were hauled into court under the law.
President Joe Biden said the law was “almost un-American” because it creates what he called “a vigilante system” in which neighbours can spy on neighbours and haul each other into court. Biden said “I have been and continue to be a strong supporter of Roe v. Wade.” He also said he did not believe that life begins at conception, even though he has previously said he believes the Church’s teaching on abortion.
In his remarks, the president continued to avoid even mentioning the word abortion. Abortion rights activists have criticised the president for not using the “bully pulpit” of the White House to promote abortion rights. Some activists set up a website called “DidBidenSayAbortionYet.org” urging the president to “stop stigmatising” the procedure by refusing to say the word. Other abortion advocates encouraged women who have had abortions to publicly defend their decision to end a pregnancy.
In an interview last week withthe Spanish radio station COPE, owned by the Spanish bishops’ conference,Pope Francis repeated one of his earlier pronouncements on abortion. He told journalist Carlos Herrera: “It’s a life. A human life. Some say, ‘It’s not a person.’ It is a human life! So, in front of a human life I ask myself two questions: Is it licit to eliminate a human life to solve a problem? Second question: Is it fair to hire a contract killer to solve a problem? And with these two questions, what about the cases of elimination of people [the unborn or the elderly] because they are a burden for society?”
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