Abortion-rights supporters are outraged today over the fact that the Texas Heartbeat Act took effect at midnight, because the Supreme Court has yet to act on an emergency petition from abortion providers demanding that the Court block the law. The bipartisan statute prevents state officials from enforcing the law and instead grants private citizens the right to sue someone who helps a woman obtain an abortion, including the abortionist.
On Bench Memos yesterday afternoon, Ed Whelan had an excellent summary of the bill and the legal challenge, in which he makes the important point that the abortion providers challenging the statute “are trying to game the Court to rule on issues that, because of their own litigation strategy, no lower court has even addressed.” In other words, abortion providers “are seeking an advisory opinion in a case that should have been dismissed at the outset for absence of a live controversy.”
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