The US justice sues Texas when it considers that its abortion law violates constitutional rights

Attorney General Merrick Garland announces a lawsuit against Texas this Thursday.

Scott Applewhite / AP

The United States Department of Justice has filed a lawsuit against the State of Texas on Thursday for the controversial law that prohibits interrupting pregnancy after six weeks of gestation.

At a press conference, the attorney general, Merrick Garland, declared that "the rule is clearly unconstitutional as evidenced by Supreme Court precedents."

Texas has passed that law to "challenge the Constitution," the lawsuit read.

"The Department of Justice has an obligation to uphold the Constitution of the United States and the rule of law," continued the attorney general.

Garland also criticized the fact that the new legislation holds citizens who assist a woman accountable for enforcing the law "for exercising their constitutional rights."

More information

• Texas, the epicenter of America's war on abortion

• Biden's spokeswoman, to a journalist who questioned abortion: "You have never been pregnant."

On September 1, the law that represents the hardest setback for abortion in the United States in almost 50 years came into force.

The White House left its position from the beginning.

For the president, Joe Biden, the norm violates the rights of women.

The Garland Justice Department's reaction came Monday when the attorney general announced that the federal government would be responsible for protecting abortion clinics in the event of attacks.

Under the magnifying glass of the Biden Administration is also what the White House has criticized as the spirit of persecution of the text, since it limits the role of the authorities in surveillance but, instead, allows "anyone" to sue women, doctors or whoever assists in the termination of a pregnancy (and reward her with $ 10,000).

"This type of ruse that nullifies the US Constitution is what all Americans should fear, regardless of the party they belong to," reported the attorney general, warning that the element of the rule that encourages bounty hunters can reach become a model to be copied for other states "on other constitutional rights."

The spokeswoman for the governor of Texas (Greg Abbott) defended the rule and accused the Biden Administration of acting for political reasons, with the ultimate aim of distracting Americans from more important issues, such as leaving Afghanistan or the continuous flow of migrants. on the southern border of the country.

"We have faith that the courts will uphold the law and protect the right to life," Renae Eze said in a statement.

The crusade against abortion maintained by the conservatives achieved a great victory last week, when the Supreme Court decided not to stop the law known as the law of the heartbeat (

Texas heartbeat

, as the norm is called), and it became practically dead paper the right to abortion in that state.

There are also a dozen or so other states that prohibit abortion after six weeks of pregnancy.

But different judges of the federal circuit have prevented them from entering into force to date, since they considered those norms incompatible with Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that guarantees the right to terminate a pregnancy before it is viable, which which translates to approximately 22-24 weeks.

Subscribe here to the

EL PAÍS América

newsletter

and receive all the informative keys of the current situation in the region.