The Supreme Court has agreed to expedite the process of hearing challenges to the infamous Texas Heartbeat Bill.
The bill itself does not criminalize abortion in any way shape or form. Women also cannot be held accountable for receiving abortions. The bill allows physicians who have preformed the act after a heartbeat is detected in the fetus to be held liable in civil court.
According to Fox News, The “question presented” in the Whole Women’s Health case is about “whether a State can insulate from federal-court review a law that prohibits the exercise of a constitutional right by delegating to the general public the authority to enforce that prohibition through civil actions.”
Though the constitution does not explicitly state any right to an abortion. The idea that women have a constitutional “right” to receive an abortion is derived from 7-2 Supreme Court decision in 1973 that asserted the fourteenth amendment allows women the right of “privacy” thus allowing abortions to go unpunished.
This decision is one that’s been largely unchallenged and only stands on one leg. The fourteenth amendment deals with privacy in the sense of due process. The system that ensures an accused person receives a fair trial.
This hardly relates to the subject of abortion, and is seemingly one weak blow from caving in on itself.
This challenge, meant to shut down Texas’ abortion bill may very well end up resulting in new challenges to the Roe v Wade ruling.
Though if the decision was overturned it’s likely that national uproar would ensue, as Americans who have felt free to massacre fetuses for decades feel that their “rights” have been taken away.
Arguments will be heard starting on the first day of November 2021. In the meantime, the Texas law will stand, and won’t be blocked.