September 15, 2021
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Amicus Brief Filed in
Federal District Court Rejects Texas Law Banning Abortions After Six Weeks
Carson
City, NV
– Today, Nevada Attorney General Aaron D. Ford today joined a coalition of 24
attorneys general in filing an amicus brief in support of the U.S. Department
of Justice’s (DOJ) challenge to Texas’ new unconstitutional six week ban on
abortions. The brief specifically supports DOJ’s motion for a preliminary
injunction of the law, which went into effect earlier this month.
“Let
me make this clear, Texas has directly attacked the constitutional reproductive
rights of its residents, who must be allowed to access safe and legal
abortions,” said AG Ford. “TheTexas abortion ban is a push for
control by a movement who wants to return our nation to the past. We must learn
from the mistakes of the past, not repeat them. Women must be allowed to make
their own decisions when it comes to their health care and bodily autonomy.”
The
brief, filed today in the United States District Court for the Western District
of Texas, argues that by banning nearly all pre-viability abortions within
Texas’s borders, the law, Senate Bill 8 (S.B. 8), violates nearly 50 years of
Supreme Court precedent affirming the constitutional right to terminate a
pregnancy before viability. The brief further contends that the Texas
Legislature sought to circumvent prior Supreme Court rulings and to prevent
judicial review of the law by delegating enforcement authority to private
individuals instead of the government and, as such, S.B. 8 is an “unprecedented
attack on our constitutional order” and the rule of law.
The
coalition contends that the clear purpose of S.B. 8’s private enforcement
scheme is to produce an “across-the-board ban on constitutionally protected
activity,” and that the private enforcement mechanism does not shield Texas’s
unconstitutional law from judicial review. The brief describes how Texas
created a structure within its state court system that requires courts to
provide monetary and injunctive relief to claimants who bring cases against
providers and those who “aid and abet” such constitutionally protected care.
The coalition argues that the federal district court should not allow Texas to
render the constitutionally protected rights recognized in Roe v. Wade
legally void through the law’s transparent scheme.
The
brief describes how the law is already significantly impacting abortion
provider clinics in Texas and beyond, including in amici states. Clinics in
nearby states are already reporting a rise in calls from Texas patients seeking
abortions, and one day after the law went into effect, all abortion clinics in
New Mexico were reportedly booked for weeks. This rise in abortion caseloads in
other states from Texas patients and the increase in needed travel for patients
could result in many people – especially low-income people – being unable to
receive the care they need. The law also threatens the many people who help
patients in Texas obtain access to an abortion by creating a more than $10,000
potential liability for anyone who so much as gives a patient a ride to an
abortion provider or otherwise “aids or abets” an abortion. The amici states,
the brief explains, are committed to shielding their residents and clinicians
from these harms when they help a patient in Texas obtain constitutionally
protected care.
Finally,
the brief argues that it is essential for the federal district court to enjoin
the law immediately to stop the irreparable harm that S.B. 8 is inflicting on
people in Texas and across the country including the amici states. Forcing a
patient to carry an unwanted pregnancy to term, the brief argues, will lead to
negative health and socioeconomic consequences, including placing people who
are forced to carry a pregnancy to term at greater risk of life-threatening
illnesses and harming their ability to maintain full-time employment.
In
addition to Nevada, other states joining the amicus brief include joined by the
attorneys general of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District
of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan,
Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon,
Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin.
The
Amicus brief is attached.
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