Texas’ pro-life law stands after ruling from federal appeals court

Judges James C. Ho and Catharina Haynes were in the majority, while Judge Carl E. Stewart dissented, according to the Washington Post.

On Sept. 9, President Joe Biden’s Department of Justice and Attorney General Merrick Garland sued Texas over the abortion law, and there was a back-and-forth on legal rulings allowing it to remain in effect since then.

At a House Oversight Committee hearing at the end of September, a Texas doctor called abortion "an act of love." Last week on Wednesday, US District Judge Robert Pitman had suspended the law, granting a request by the Biden admin to do so. But the Fifth Circuit Court by Friday evening placed a hold on that order.

"Fully aware that depriving its citizens of this right by direct state action would be flagrantly unconstitutional, the State contrived an unprecedented and transparent statutory scheme to do just that," Pitman wrote initially.

It was back in May that Texas Governor Greg Abbott first signed the "fetal heartbeat" bill into law. Given a start date of Sept. 1, the measure grants private citizens the right to sue abortion providers who violate the ban.

Last month was when it became a heated political argument. The day it went into effect, Biden vowed to "defend abortion rights," and the day after that the Supreme Court of the United States rejected an emergency request to block it.

In that case it was a 5 to 4 SCOTUS vote.

The Wall Street Journal says Biden’s Justice Department will file a request with the Supreme Court to block the Texas measure. The administration stepped in to challenge the abortion ban after "abortion-rights advocates" failed to win in court on their own. The Court of Appeals of the 5th Circuit has scheduled a Dec. 6 hearing for further review.