How 3 lawsuits could potentially stop the Texas abortion ban
The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments for Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health — the Mississippi-based case about the legality of pre-viability abortion bans — on December 1. (PHOTO BY SAMUEL CORUM/GETTY IMAGES)
There are three major cases currently challenging the new Texas law, all taking up different arguments. Any one of them could reach the Supreme Court. Here’s how.
A judge’s ruling lifted Senate Bill 8 — the Texas law banning all abortion after the detection of cardiac activity via ultrasound, or approximately six weeks into a pregnancy — for 48 hours last week, but a federal appeals court has put the law back into effect while legal challenges make their way through the court system.
Those rulings were related to the Justice Department’s suit, one of the three major legal challenges to the Texas ban. Last month, the ACLU, on behalf of the abortion provider Whole Woman’s Health, asked for an expedited hearing on their case. And 20 days after SB 8 went into effect, the first civil suit against an abortion provider was filed after the provider publicly said he knowingly violated the law.
As these various legal challenges to halt SB 8 — temporarily and permanently — continue to unfold, The 19th spoke with Julia Kaye, the lead attorney in the Whole Woman’s Health case against Texas, and Rachel Rebouché, the interim dean of Temple University’s Beasley School of Law and an expert of reproductive health law and feminist legal theory. They talked about how to understand the legal landscape around SB 8, including what might happen next, when and to what effect.