iNDICA NEWS BUREAU-
The near-total prohibition of abortion in Texas is likely to remain in force for the foreseeable future after the Fifth US Circuit Court of Appeals sent a legal challenge by abortion clinics against the controversial law to the state’s Supreme Court.
The move is widely seen as a setback for abortion providers and those seeking to overturn the restrictive law because it is certain to significantly delay the case and keep the Republican-powered abortion ban in effect for a long time.
It could be months before the challenge returns to a federal court, or never, the Chinese Xinhua news agency quoted local analysts as saying. The Texas Supreme Court is dominated by judges appointed by Republicans.
“This decision now keeps the case in limbo – and abortion after six weeks in the nation’s second-largest state a dead letter indefinitely,” Steve Vladeck, a University of Texas School of Law professor, tweeted.
Until a decision is made, abortion providers in the Lone Star state have mostly stopped performing the procedure, though US Supreme Court decisions have established a constitutional right to abortion after the landmark Roe v Wade decision in 1973 that legalized abortion across the country.
The US Supreme Court has declined to intervene in the Texas case three times already, most recently in December last year when the justices kept the ban in effect while allowing a legal challenge to move through a lower state court.
Taking effect from Sep 1 as the most restrictive law against abortion in the country, the Texas law prohibits aborting a foetus once cardiac activity is detected in the embryo. Such activity can be detected as early as about six weeks after conception, a period when most women are unaware that they are pregnant.
The state law makes no exceptions for pregnancies resulting from incest or rape. Furthermore, it allows most US citizens, no matter where they live, to file lawsuits against abortion providers who they think infringed the rule.
