DOJ sues Texas over abortion law

The US Justice Department on Thursday sued Texas over its so-called heartbeat abortion law on the ground that it was enacted "in open defiance of the Constitution".

The lawsuit seeks an immediate and permanent injunction to prohibit enforcing the law in Texas. It also argues that the law subjects some federal employees and government partners in Texas to civil liability for doing their jobs.

"The act is clearly unconstitutional under long-standing Supreme Court precedent," Attorney General Merrick Garland said at a news conference announcing the lawsuit.

"It is settled constitutional law that 'a state may not prohibit any woman from making the ultimate decision to terminate her pregnancy before viability,'" Garland said, adding that the Texas law knowingly violates the Constitution but shields the state from such liability by deputizing private citizens serving as bounty hunters.

"This kind of scheme to nullify the Constitution of the United States is one that all Americans, whatever their politics or party, should fear," he said.

The Justice Department also argues that the Texas law violates the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution, which says federal law supersedes state law.

The law bans abortions after six weeks, including in cases of rape and incest, and is one of the most restrictive in the US. It empowers any private citizen in the nation to sue someone found to be aiding and abetting an abortion, including providers, doctors and even paid drivers.

It also provides incentive to people who win such a lawsuit with up to $10,000 and forbids defendants from seeking court costs from plaintiff in case of successful defense.

The US Supreme Court refused to block the new abortion law in an emergency suit brought by abortion providers and advocates on the day when the law took effect more than a week ago.

Since the law took effect, most abortion providers in Texas have stopped providing abortions to women pregnant for six weeks or longer because they are afraid to be flooded with lawsuits. It has been reported that abortion clinics in neighboring states are flooded with women seeking help from Texas.

"This leaves women in Texas unable to exercise their Constitutional rights and unable to obtain judicial review at the very moment they need it," Garland said, adding that serious damage will be done to the society "if states implement laws that empower any private individual to infringe on another's Constitutionally protected rights in this way."