U.S Supreme court has upheld a new law in Texas that bans abortions for most women.
Gatekeepers News reports that Heartbeat Act forbids terminations after the detection of what anti-abortion campaigners call a foetal heartbeat.
Rights group are seeking an injunction to prevent the law which came into effect on Wednesday.
Justices ruled 5-4 against granting the injunction and in an unsigned explanation, the court’s majority said their decision was “not based on any conclusion about the constitutionality of Texas’s law”, maintaining that the legal challenges could still proceed.
President Joe Biden had earlier on Wednesday condemned the law, calling it “extreme” and cautioned that it would “significantly impair” women’s access to healthcare.
Biden, in a statement, said his administration would “protect and defend” the constitutional rights established under Roe v Wade and “upheld as a precedent for nearly half a century”.
The American President was referring to the 1973 case in which the Supreme Court ruled US women have the right to an abortion until a foetus is viable – that is, able to survive outside the womb. This is usually between 22 and 24 weeks into a pregnancy.
White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters that Biden had long wanted to see the “codification” of Roe v Wade – which would mean Congress voting to make the precedent federal law – “and (the Texas law) highlights even further the need to move forward on that effort”.
Other Democrats also expressed their outrage. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the Supreme Court had “delivered catastrophe to women in Texas” while New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said it was a “direct assault on the rights of women” across the country and would need a “national mobilisation” to fight it.
Rights groups including Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), who had requested that the Supreme Court block the legislation, say they will not give up the fight.
