DALLAS — As expected, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday formally ended a legal challenge against Senate Bill 8, Texas’ six week abortion ban, a law enacted on Sept. 1, which is considered the most restrictive abortion ban since Roe vs. Wade was decided in 1973.
The federal challenge is remanded to the district court with instructions to dismiss all challenges to the law’s private enforcement provisions.
The federal challenge was doomed after the 5th circuit sent the case to Texas Supreme Court regarding a question on whether or not state medical licensing officials could reprimand providers who violate SB 8. The state’s high court said the law did not allow such enforcement.
The state’s high court decided that officials could not revoke licenses because they had no enforcement power under the law, which is enforced through private citizens.
That was the last narrow opening left for providers to challenge the law after the U.S. Supreme Court struck a huge blow to their case in its Dec. 10 ruling on Whole Woman’s Health vs. Jackson. That ruling allowed the challenge to proceed but greatly limited who could be sued.
Many experts and stakeholders believe the fate of the challenge was actually set in December by the U.S. Supreme Court, which upheld it.
Gov. Greg Abbott praised the decision on Twitter, calling Senate Bill 8 “the pro-life law that is saving babies every day.”
Last week, former state Rep. Wendy Davis filed a federal suit challenging SB 8 and pre-Roe statutes. The lawsuit argues that the law violates the plaintiff’s due process and free speech and asks the court to declare both this law and Texas’ older abortion law unenforceable.
Since Texas enacted SB 8 last September, many women have traveled to Oklahoma and other states to obtain abortions. Researchers from the University of Texas at Austin found that about 1,400 Texans are getting abortions each month at facilities outside the state.
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