People go before the U.S. Supreme Court on the day the court is due to issue orders and opinions in Washington, June 1, 2021.
Erin Scott | Reuters
The Supreme Court refused to block a Texas law banning most abortions in a 5-4 ruling last Wednesday.
Chief Justice John Roberts and the three appointed Democrats on the court, Judges Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, disagreed.
The “heartbeat” law went into effect Wednesday at midnight in Texas. It prohibits most abortions after six weeks of pregnancy (when many women have not yet discovered they are pregnant) and allows private citizens to file civil lawsuits against abortion providers.
Sotomayor called the decision “impressive,” saying Texas law “violates nearly 50 years of federal precedent.”
“Filed with a petition to call for a flagrantly unconstitutional law designed to ban women from exercising their constitutional rights and evade judicial scrutiny, most magistrates have chosen to bury their heads in the sand,” she wrote .
On Monday, a group of abortion providers and advocates, including Planned Parenthood, had filed an urgent request to block law enforcement. The petitioners said the law would essentially overturn the precedent set by Roe v. Wade, the historic 1973 case that enshrined the right of women to choose to have an abortion.
In response, a group of Texas officials, including Attorney General Ken Paxton, urged the high court to deny its opponents’ offer to thwart the law, calling the request “bold.”
This is breaking news. Please check for updates again.
– Kevin Breuninger of CNBC contributed to this report.