The Texas abortion ban faces a potential challenge from the Justice Department

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U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said Monday the Justice Department is “urgently” exploring ways to challenge the new strict Texas abortion law, but did not specify what options were being considered.

Garland’s statement in a press release comes days after the U.S. Supreme Court denied Texas abortion providers an emergency order against the new law banning abortions after fetal cardiac activity can be detected, which can occur as early as six weeks of pregnancy, when many do not. she knows they are pregnant.

The Supreme Court declared that it was not ruling on the constitutionality of the law, but refused to block it at this time.

Twenty abortion providers originally filed a lawsuit against the state in July for trying to protect themselves from the law, which allows private citizens to sue providers and other suspects to help women get what are now abortions and · Legal. Gov. Greg Abbott passed Senate Bill 8 in May, after abortion providers began sounding alarms about its possible impacts.

In his statement Monday, Garland also said federal officials will rely on the Freedom of Access to Access Clinics Act for decades to “protect those seeking to obtain or provide reproductive health services.” This federal law prohibits threats of force or physical obstruction against those seeking these health services.

“The department will provide support from federal law enforcement when an abortion clinic or reproductive health center is attacked,” the statement said.

Garland said DOJ officials have contacted U.S. law firms and FBI offices to “discuss our oversight authorities.”

But since the law went into effect, many providers have had to cancel procedures or deny patients care. Some clinics have even stopped providing abortion services, according to the Planned Parenthood website.

During the months leading up to the implementation of SB 8 on Wednesday, providers struggled to retain and hire new employees because of the uncertainty of the future of abortion in Texas, said Marva Sadler, senior clinical director of the abortion provider Whole Woman’s Health.

Pregnant people would show up at clinics that still don’t know if abortion was illegal, no matter how far away they were, Sadler said.

Now, the impacts of the law have been sudden across the country.

Texans have flooded clinics in neighboring states where abortion laws are less stringent. Both nonprofits and private companies have raised funds to support jeans travel that cannot afford to leave the state.

Some abortion rights advocates are also concerned that other state legislatures may follow in Texas ’footsteps. Because SB 8 relies on private citizens to enforce the law, it borders on Supreme Court ruling Roe v. Wade, which constitutionally protects abortion rights for nearly 50 years, said Josh Blackman, a professor of constitutional law at the South Texas College of Law Houston.

President Joe Biden denounced Texas law in a statement released Wednesday, also without specifying any course of action.

“My administration is deeply committed to the constitutional right established in Roe against Wade almost five decades ago and will protect and defend that right,” Biden said.

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