Justice Department seeks Supreme Court intervention on Texas heartbeat law

The Biden administration is asking the Supreme Court to table the Texas “heartbeat” law while standard legal proceedings play out.

• Texas’ heartbeat law was signed by Gov. Greg Abbott, R, in September.
• The day after the law’s enactment, the Supreme Court denied a request for injuctive relief, allowing the law to stand.
• The law was later blocked by a federal district court before being reinstated two days later by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters on Monday that the Biden administration wants all women to have “access to fundamental rights that they have to protect their own health.”

The heartbeat law, otherwise known as SB 8, bans abortions in the state of Texas after a fetal heartbeat is detected. Cardiac activity in the unborn baby can be heard via ultrasound around the six-week mark, and abortion procedures past the six-week mark are only allowed in extreme medical emergencies.

The law isn’t enforced by the state, rather, it is up to citizens to report instances of illegal abortions being performed.

If the Court grants the DOJ’s wish for an injunction, the law would be halted — not overturned — for the time being.

In its appeal submitted to the Supreme Court, the Department of Justice said that the heartbeat law defies past abortion cases “by banning abortion long before viability — indeed, before many women even realize they are pregnant.”

Justice Samuel Alito, who manages cases coming out of Texas, has told Texas to respond to the DOJ’s plight by noon Thursday.

Former Planned Parenthood director and pro-life advocate Abby Johnson said,

“Of course the abortion lobby is freaking out and they’re saying, ‘Oh, you can put a bounty on someone if you take them to get an illegal abortion.’ But the answer to that is, well then don’t take someone to get an illegal abortion.”

When Gov. Abbott signed the heartbeat bill into law, he said, “Our Creator endowed us with the right to life, and yet millions of children lose their right to life every year because of abortion.”

As people who were blessed with the gift of life, we need to ensure that right is given to every unborn baby, no matter what they look like, where they come from, or what challenges they may face in their life.

In the Bible, we see God’s love for the unborn as He declares that all are “fearfully and wonderfully made” with a plan and a purpose.

Allowing a new life to be wiped away before it even has a chance to live out its purpose breaks the heart of God, and it should break ours too.

The Supreme Court already refused to block the heartbeat law, and we should pray they stand their ground on that decision again and stand for life.