October 1 (Reuters) - President Joe Biden's administration on Friday urged a judge to block a near-total abortion ban imposed by Texas - the strictest law in the nation - in a battle pivotal in the fierce legal battle over access to abortion in the United States.
The US Supreme Court on September 1 allowed the Republican-backed law to go into effect even as litigation over its legality continued in lower courts. The US Department of Justice eight days later sued in federal court to try to invalidate it.
During a hearing in the Texas capital Austin, attorneys for the Department of Justice asked U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman to temporarily block the act, saying the state's Republican legislature and governor enacted this law openly in defiance of the Constitution.
“There is no doubt under binding constitutional precedents that a state may not prohibit abortion after six weeks,” said Brian Netter, lead attorney for the Department of Justice on the case.
“Texas knows this but they want a six-week ban anyway. So this state has employed an unprecedented scheme of vigilante justice.”
In the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that legalized abortion nationally, the Supreme Court recognized women's constitutional right to terminate a pregnancy. The high court in December will hear arguments over the legality of abortion law in Mississippi in a case where officials from that state are asking judges to overturn Roe vs. Wade.
Texas law prohibits abortions beginning in the sixth week of pregnancy, a time when many women may not even realize they are pregnant. It and the Mississippi measure are among a series of Republican-backed laws passed by various states to restrict abortion.
About 85% to 90% of abortions are performed after six weeks. Texas makes no exceptions for cases of rape and incest. It also allows ordinary citizens to enforce the ban, rewarding them with at least $10,000 if they successfully sue anyone who helped have an abortion after detecting fetal heart activity.
Four Whole Woman's Health abortion clinics across the state have reported that patient visits have plummeted and some employees have been laid off since the Texas law went into effect.
In an urgent petition filed with the court, the Justice Department provided sworn statements from the doctors who described the impact of Texas law on patients.
In a statement, Dr Joshua Yap said he had witnessed a "wave" of women traveling to neighboring Oklahoma for abortions.
"One of the most heartbreaking cases I've seen recently was a Texas minor being raped by a family member," Yap said, adding that a guardian was driving eight cars. now come to Oklahoma from Galveston because the little girl is more than six weeks pregnant.
Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, the state's top law enforcement official, argued in a court filing Wednesday that the Justice Department's case must be dismissed on the grounds legal department. Paxton said that Texas law must be challenged in state courts through lawsuits against abortion providers by private citizens.
Former Democratic President Barack Obama appointed Pitman to the judiciary in 2014.
The hearing will also include arguments from other interested parties, including Oscar Stilley, an attorney under house arrest for tax evasion who in September became one of the first to examine the case. investigated an important provision of the law by suing a San Antonio doctor who provided the abortion.
Reporting by Jan Wolfe and Sarah N. Lynch in Washington; Editing by Will Dunham, Scott Malone and Dan Grebler.
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