Joe Biden's administration urges judge to block Texas anti-abortion law
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Attorney William Thompson of the Texas Attorney General's office accused Netter of "inflammatory rhetoric" and insisted the law respects Supreme Court precedent
US President Joe Biden's administration urged a federal judge to swiftly block a new law that bans most abortions in Texas, raising concerns about women's curtailed access to care.
Deputy assistant attorney general Brian Netter, in one of the court arguments in Austin, said that the controversial statute represents "an open threat to the rule of law." The government further went on describing the ban as "a truly extraordinary law designed to outflank the federal government and to violate the constitution."
Netter said that adding a "judicial intervention" was necessary to make the law unenforceable until the case is decided.
Attorney William Thompson of the Texas Attorney General's office accused Netter of "inflammatory rhetoric" and insisted the law respects Supreme Court precedent.
However, the judge Robert Pitman said, "If the state's so confident in the constitutionality of the limitations on a woman's access to abortion, then why did it go to such great lengths to create this very unusual private cause of action?"
Earlier, Biden had openly condemned the US supreme court for rejecting to ban the abortion law. Biden said the supreme court judges, all appointed by former President Donald Trump, delivered an assault on a woman’s rights.
"The Supreme Court's ruling overnight is an unprecedented assault on a woman's constitutional rights under Roe v. Wade, which has been the law of the land for almost fifty years," Biden said in a statement. "This (Texas) law is so extreme it does not even allow for exceptions in the case of rape or incest."
Texas abortion law is one of the toughest and most restrictive abortion bans in the US in the past couple of decades.
As per the law, any member of the public from Texas can file a legal complaint against the doctors, health care providers and family members who support a woman in aborting a child after six weeks of the start of her pregnancy.