The Heartbeat Bill, which effectively bans abortion after six weeks, has been sent back to Texas state courts for procedural determination.
Justices Breyer, Kagan and Sotomayor dissented. “The law immediately devastated access to abortion care in Texas through a complicated private-bounty-hunter scheme that violates nearly 50 years of this Court’s precedents,” Sotomayor wrote.
The bill goes against the precedent set by Roe vs. Wade, which blocks restrictions on abortion before the baby is viable. The Heartbeat Bill is set up so that lawsuits by private citizens enforce it rather than the state. This makes it difficult for abortion institutions to sue on constitutional grounds.
The Supreme Court ruled that abortion clinics could sue the law, but did not comment on the constitutionality of the bill.