The U.S. Justice Department under the Biden administration announced on Thursday that has filed a lawsuit against the state of Texas over the Heartbeat Act, which took effect on September 1, banning abortions beyond the sixth week mark. Now, pro-lifers are decrying the move, calling President Joe Biden the "puppet of the radical abortion agenda."
According to the Christian Post, the U.S. Department of Justice is claiming that the state of Texas is acting in "defiance of the Constitution." The Biden DOJ argued that the Constitution orders "a State may not prohibit any woman from making the ultimate decision to terminate her pregnancy before viability,'" but Texas "has done just that."
The lawsuit stated that the U.S. is seeking a judgement that rules S.B. 8 as "invalid under the Supremacy Clause and the Fourteenth Amendment, is preempted by federal law, and violates the doctrine of intergovernmental immunity." Texas' S.B. 8, better known as the Heartbeat Act was signed into law by Governor Greg Abbott on May 19 and took effect on September 1.
The new heartbeat bill prohibits abortion after a child's heartbeat can be detected, which is usually around six weeks of pregnancy. It also allows priviate citizens to file lawsuits against doctor who perform abortions and those who assist pregnant women in accessing and obtaining illegal abortions.
Pro-abortion advocates argue that this is one of the strictest abortion laws in the country, as women are often unaware that they are pregnant at six weeks. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to block S.B. 8 before it took effect at the beginning of September.
Attorney General Merrick Garland this week said that the Biden DOJ was considering "all options" to challenge the Texas abortion ban and promised to "continue to protect those seeking to obtain or provide reproductive health services pursuant to our criminal and civil enforcement of the FACE Act."
He added that under the FACE Act, "the use or threat of force and physical obstruction that injures, intimidates, or interferes with a person seeking to obtain or provide reproductive health services" is in fact prohibited and can be punished under the law.
The Biden DOJ's latest attack on the Texas abortion ban has pro-lifers riled up, accusing the Democratic administration of defending the abortion industry. Several pro-life leaders took to social media to express their disdain over the lawsuit, CBN News reported.
Texas Right to Life Vice President Elizabeth Graham accused the Democratic president of having "a long record of failures with protecting the unborn and pregnant women" following the Biden DOJ's latest move to thwart S.B. 8. She declared, "He is a puppet of the radical abortion agenda, and his DOJ will quickly find that they do not have jurisdiction to stop the Texas Heartbeat Act."
Ethics and Public Policy Center president Ryan T. Anderson, who is also the founding editor of the Witherspoon Institute's online journal called Public Discourse, took to Twitter to share that while the Attorney General claims that the Texas abortion ban "violates longstanding precedent," that very same precedent "has no basis in the actual Constitution."
EDITOR'S NOTE:
A judge from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Judge James Ho, said the same thing earlier, saying "Nothing in the text or original understanding of the Constitution established a right to an abortion."
"Rather, what distinguishes abortion from other matters of health care policy in America--and uniquely removes abortion police from the democratic process established by our Founders--is Supreme Court precedent," Ho added.
The Supreme Court's decision to let Texas' anti-abortion bill pass into law, however, can serve as precedent to something pro-lifers are hoping for: the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
