A judge in the US state of Texas has temporarily blocked the strict anti-abortion laws introduced there earlier this month.
Judge Robert Pitman ruled on Wednesday that the law cannot be enforced, and women can continue to have abortions while lawsuits over the legislation continue legally. The US Supreme Court previously ruled that the law could remain in effect until a final ruling.
President Joe Biden had strongly condemned the “bizarre and extreme” law in Texas, and his administration was suing the state of Texas. Pitman’s decision comes in response to this charge. Biden said his administration is looking for ways to give Texas women access to safe and legal abortions.
An estimated 85 percent of Texas women who want to terminate their pregnancies would no longer be able to do so in Texas. A state cannot deny any woman that right before the baby is viable, Attorney General Merrick Garland argued in the indictment. That’s about the 24th week of pregnancy, according to a 1973 Supreme Court ruling.