Supreme Court denies request to stop Texas 6-week abortion ban, with John Roberts and liberals dissenting

By CNN Newsource

Published September 1, 2021 11:03 PM

By Ariane de Vogue, CNN Supreme Court Reporter

The Supreme Court formally denied a request from Texas abortion providers to freeze a state law that bars abortions after six weeks. Chief Justice John Roberts joined the three liberal justices in dissent.

The court’s move means that the law — which is one of the strictest in the nation and bans abortion before many people know they are pregnant — will remain on the books.

The law allows private citizens to bring civil suits against anyone who assists a pregnant person seeking an abortion in violation of the ban.

There were several dissents. In one, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, joined by her two liberal colleagues, called the majority’s order “stunning.”

“Presented with an application to enjoin a flagrantly unconstitutional law engineered to prohibit women from exercising their constitutional rights and evade judicial scrutiny, a majority of Justices have opted to bury their heads in the sand,” Sotomayor wrote.

“No federal appellate court has upheld such a comprehensive prohibition on abortions before viability under current law,” she wrote. “Taken together, the Act is a breathtaking act of defiance — of the Constitution, of this Court’s precedents, and of the rights of women seeking abortions throughout Texas. “

After it took effect early Wednesday morning, clinics across Texas drastically limited their services. Whole Woman’s Health, which operates four clinics in Texas, said it is offering abortion services “only if no embryonic or fetal cardiac activity is detected in the sonogram,” according to a spokesperson, and several other providers also are taking that limited approach.

This story is breaking and will be updated.

CNN’s Dan Berman and Tierney Sneed contributed to this report.

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