Supreme Court Denies Abortionists' Bid to Have Liberal District Judge Rule on the Texas Heartbeat Act

David McLoone : Jan 21, 2022
LifeSiteNews.com

(Washington, DC) — [LifeSiteNews.com] The US Supreme Court rejected a petition from abortionists Thursday night to return challenges against Texas' pro-life Heartbeat Act to a federal district court, quashing the hopes of abortion advocates that the life-saving legislation might be overturned. (Image: Pixabay)

The majority conservative Supreme Court decided to uphold the Texas law in a 6-3 decision, with liberal justices Sotomayor, Breyer, and Kagan dissenting.

Sotomayor wrote that the court's denial to return the case to federal court amounts to allowing the state of Texas to "extend the deprivation of the federal constitutional rights of its citizens through procedural manipulation."

No opinion was issued by the six justices who voted to reject the petition.

The group of abortionists was requesting to have a district court, where sympathetic US District Judge Robert Pitman sits, rule on the state law, which currently bans abortions after the detection of fetal cardiac activity—typically six weeks into pregnancy—but the Supreme Court's decision not to intervene means that the case will remain in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.

That court had already decided on Monday that the case is one of state law and certified the Republican-controlled Texas Supreme Court to rule on the challenges to the case. No immediate decision is necessary from the Texas Supreme Court, allowing the pro-life law, Senate Bill (S.B.) 8, to remain in effect.

Rather than enforcing the abortion ban at the level of criminal law, S.B. 8 "exclusively" permits private citizens to bring civil lawsuits against abortionists or anyone else who aids in the procurement of a post-heartbeat abortion.

The law has already seen the closure of many abortion mills in Texas and an estimated 75–100 lives have been saved every day since its introduction on September 1, amounting to approximately 10,000 unborn babies' lives being saved.

Thursday's decision came on the eve of the 49th annual March for Life... Subscribe for free to Breaking Christian News here

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