U.S. Supreme Court hears oral arguments on Texas’ near-total abortion ban

Washington, November 2 (RHC)-- The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments Monday on whether to uphold Texas’s ban on abortions after six weeks, before most women know they are pregnant. 

The law, known as S.B. 8, also allows private citizens — anywhere in the United States — to sue healthcare workers and others for facilitating an abortion in Texas.  It’s the most serious challenge yet to the landmark 1973 Supreme Court ruling Roe v. Wade, which guaranteed the right to an abortion. 

The court’s three liberal justices asked if allowing the Texas law to stand would invite other state legislatures to pass laws invalidating other constitutional rights.  Justice Elena Kagan said: "We would live in a very different world from the world we live in today.  Essentially, we would be inviting states, all 50 of them, with respect to their unpreferred constitutional rights, to try to nullify the law that this court has laid down as to the content of those rights.”