Abortion law critics dig in against Texas move

Critics of Texas' highly restrictive abortion law are holding the line in their fight against the legislation that took effect last week after legal challenges crumbled.

The law, which emerged from legislation known as the heartbeat bill, effectively bans almost all abortions after six weeks in the southern US state, including in cases of rape and incest.

Lined up against the move by the Republican-controlled state is a diverse band of opponents including the federal government, a city government, a UN human rights group and business and activist groups of all stripes. And many are vowing further action.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott on Tuesday again defended the bill. In response to a question, he said the law allows rape victims up to six weeks to get an abortion and so does not force them to have the child of their attacker, the local NBC television affiliate, KXAN, reported. He said that the state will work toward eradicating all rapists.

On Monday, US Attorney General Merrick Garland pledged to protect abortion clinics in Texas by enforcing the FACE Act, which stands for Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act and was signed into law in 1944.

The law "prohibits 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", Garland said in a statement.

"The department will provide support from federal law enforcement when an abortion clinic or reproductive health center is under attack," Garland said. "We will not tolerate violence against those seeking to obtain or provide reproductive health services, physical obstruction or property damage in violation of the FACE Act."

US President Joe Biden has called the abortion law "almost un-American" and vowed a "whole-of-government effort" to fight it. The law's provisions went into effect last Wednesday.

Courts have blocked other states from imposing similar restrictions, but Texas' law differs significantly because it leaves enforcement up to private citizens through lawsuits instead of criminal prosecutions.

The US Supreme Court last week declined to block the law in a 5-4 vote that has provoked outrage from liberals and cheers from many conservatives.

Nationwide rally

While small rallies were held across the country last weekend to protest the law, the organizers of an event called the Women's March said they are working with more than 90 organizations to mobilize a nationwide rally on Oct 2 against the law.

Republican officials in at least seven states, including Arkansas, Florida, South Carolina and South Dakota, have suggested they may review or amend their states' laws to mimic Texas' legislation, according to The Washington Post.

The city council of Portland, Oregon, was scheduled to vote on Wednesday on a resolution that would ban the purchase of goods and services from Texas in response to the law, Mayor Ted Wheeler's office said.

The resolution also would bar state-employee business travel to the state until Texas either withdraws the abortion law or it is overturned in court.

Melissa Upreti, chair of the United Nations' working group on discrimination against women and girls, criticized the law as "structural sex and gender-based discrimination at its worst".