Supreme Court Will Hear Two Challenges On Texas Abortion Ban

The U.S. Supreme Court agreed on Friday to hear two challenges to Texas’ highly restrictive abortion law on Nov. 1 but will not block the law in the meantime.

The challenges come from the U.S. Justice Department and a group of abortion providers.

The law, which effectively bans abortion after six weeks of pregnancy, has ricocheted around the courts since it went into effect on Sept. 1. On three other occasions, courts have allowed the restrictive ban to stay in place. One court moved to put it on hold, but that order only stood for 48 hours.

U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, who heads the Justice Department, has called the law “clearly unconstitutional” and warned of a grim future in which dozens of other states use the law as a model for their own bans if the courts don’t strike it down.

The ban has had a devastating effect on Texans seeking abortions. Many patients are not even aware of their pregnancies that early in the term, and accessing the procedure out of state can require significant travel costs.

“It feels inhumane to have to comply with this law,” Dr. Bhavik Kumar, an abortion provider at Planned Parenthood’s Houston clinic, told HuffPost earlier this week.

The law also deputizes citizens, not the state, to enforce the ban, and offers a $10,000 bounty to anyone who successfully sues people “aiding or abetting” patients seeking abortions in the state. The courts have cited that caveat ― which separates it from other states’ attempts at a six-week ban ― as the reason the law could not be blocked before it went into effect.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.