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Texas To Appeal Judge’s Order Blocking Pro-Life Law

   DailyWire.com
Marches Held Nationwide In Support Of Reproductive Rights WASHINGTON, DC - OCTOBER 02: Women rights activists hold up signs as they gather at Freedom Plaza for a pre-march rally of the annual Womens March October 2, 2021 in Washington, DC. The Women's March and other groups organized marches across the country to protest the new abortion law in Texas. (Photo by Joshua Roberts/Getty Images) Joshua Roberts / Stringer
Joshua Roberts/Getty Images

Texas is planning to appeal the recent order of a U.S. District Court judge that blocked the state’s new pro-life law.

As Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton tweeted, “We disagree with the Court’s decision and have already taken steps to immediately appeal it to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. The sanctity of human life is, and will always be, a top priority for me.”

As The Daily Wire reported, “A judge appointed by former Democrat President Barack Obama issued an order on Wednesday blocking Texas’ pro-life law that protects unborn babies.”

“A person’s right under the Constitution to choose to obtain an abortion prior to fetal viability is well established. Fully aware that depriving its citizens of this right by direct state action would be flagrantly unconstitutional, the State contrived an unprecedented and transparent statutory scheme to do just that,” U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman claimed in the 113-page ruling. “The State created a private cause of action by which individuals with no personal interest in, or connection to, a person seeking an abortion would be incentivized to use the state’s judicial system, judges, and court officials to interfere with the right to an abortion.”

Pitman also claimed that from the time the law went into effect, “women have been unlawfully prevented from exercising control over their lives in ways that are protected by the Constitution,” adding, “this Court will not sanction one more day of this offensive deprivation of such an important right.”

Last week, the judge heard arguments from both sides of the federal lawsuit over Texas’ new pro-life law.

As reported by The Daily Wire, the Biden administration’s Justice Department sued the state of Texas over the new law.

Texas’ Heartbeat Act effectively outlaws abortion after the sixth week of pregnancy, when fetal cardiac activity can be detected. As The Daily Wire previously reported, “The Texas law allows citizens to sue abortion providers and those who ‘aid and abet’ illegal procedures for a financial reward if the lawsuit is successful.”

As reported by NPR, “Department attorneys and lawyers for the state of Texas made their cases on Friday at a virtual hearing before Judge Robert Pitman of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas.”

At the hearing, which lasted three hours, both sides gave their arguments.

“The state resorted to an unprecedented scheme of vigilante justice that was designed to scare abortion providers,” argued Brian Netter, a lawyer for the Justice Department. “So far, it’s working. Women have been left desperate, forced under sometimes harrowing circumstances to get out of Texas, if they even can.”

“A state may not ban abortions at six weeks. Texas knew this, but it wanted a six-week ban anyway, so the state resorted to an unprecedented scheme of vigilante justice that was designed to scare abortion providers and others who might help women exercise their constitutional rights,” Brian Netter also said to the court.

Texas lawyer Will Thompson said at the hearing, “I don’t think the state went to particularly unusual lengths,” as he pressed the judge to dismiss the federal government’s legal action.

Thompson also said, “I’m sorry to see that the federal government’s pattern of hyperbole and inflammatory rhetoric has continued.”

The Supreme Court previously chose not to stay the new law, allowing it to take effect. The reason for the high court’s ruling was due to the law’s enforcement strategy.

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