The measure, dubbed a “heartbeat” law by its proponents, prohibits abortions from the time cardiac activity can be detected in the fetus — typically about six weeks into pregnancy.
Texas also asked justices on Thursday not to take up a challenge to the law from abortion clinics in the state before 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rules on whether the clinics have standing to sue, an issue the court will take up in December. The state says the clinics and their patients shouldn’t be able to sue either state officials or private citizens who may or may not act to enforce the ban in the future.
The appeals court previously rejected the clinics’ emergency request to block the law. That’s caused chaos for patients across the state, abortion rights supporters say.
Texas argued the case shouldn’t leapfrog over the 5th Circuit, saying such moves should be reserved only for cases that “prevent widespread societal or monumental disruption.”
The Supreme Court is set to hear another blockbuster abortion case in December related to Mississippi’s 15-week abortion ban, a case they could choose to combine with the multiple challenges to Texas’ law.