Supreme Court Allows Lawsuits Against Texas Abortion Law to Continue, But Keeps the Law in Place

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The Supreme Court has issued an opinion on a controversial Texas law that critics claim allows for vigilantes to report on anyone providing or assisting in someone seeking an abortion.

Specific details are still emerging, but it appears that the highest court in the land has ruled that Texas abortion clinics can sue over the state ban, but won’t stop the law from being enforced.

Reporting for NBC News, Pete Williams reports:

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court ruled Friday that a lawsuit by abortion providers challenging Texas’ near-total ban on the procedure can move forward, a victory for opponents of the law.

The measure, the most restrictive in the nation, prohibits abortions in the state after about the sixth week of pregnancy, before many women know they are pregnant.

Texas had sought to make the law nearly impossible to attack in federal court. Because past Supreme Court rulings have said states cannot prohibit abortion before the age of fetal viability, at around 24 weeks, Texas officials didn’t seek to enforce the ban themselves. Instead, the law delegates enforcement to anyone who chooses to sue a doctor performing an abortion or people aiding in the procedure.

Those who sue can collect at least $10,000, potentially subjecting abortion providers to the prospect of repeated, and ruinous, lawsuits.

Texas had argued that opponents of the ban had no legal authority to sue the state because the law, known as S.B. 8, doesn’t give Texas officials any role in enforcing the restriction.

“Federal courts don’t enjoin laws, they enjoin officials who enforce the laws,” the state’s solicitor general said.

The vote went 8-1 in favor of allowing Texas clinics to challenge the abortion law.