The Freedom From Religion Foundation denounces the latest move in the ongoing abortion battle in Texas, where the future of abortion care continues to be bleak.
On Thursday, Oct. 14, a panel of federal appellate judges ruled that SB 8, the Texas abortion ban, can continue to be enforced while the law’s constitutionality is determined. The 5th U.S. Circuit of Appeals, arguably the most conservative appellate court in the nation, issued a four-sentence order to let the draconian abortion ban stay in effect until it decides the U.S. Department of Justice’s lawsuit against Texas over the abortion ban.
The order by the court suspends the preliminary injunction of U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman, whose order described the abortion ban as an “offensive deprivation of such an important right.” Voting to uphold the ban were Judges James C. Ho, a President Trump appointee and Catharina Haynes, a President George W. Bush nominee. Judge Carl Stewart, nominated by President Clinton, was the dissenting vote on the appeals court.
The Biden administration commendably has asked the Supreme Court to intervene and block the abortion ban.
SB 8, the harshest abortion restriction in the country, was crafted with help from Texas Right to Life, a Christian, anti-abortion group which describes itself as a group that “legally, peacefully and prayerfully protects the God-given Right to Life of innocent human beings from fertilization to natural death.” When Gov. Greg Abbott signed the anti-abortion law, he commented, “Our creator endowed us with the right to life and yet millions of children lose their right to life every year because of abortion.”
“There is no scientific reasoning behind the abortion ban — only punitive and primitive religious ideology,” notes Annie Laurie Gaylor, FFRF co-president.
