Texas abortion law: Biden's DOJ asks judge to intervene

The U.S. Department of Justice late Tuesday asked a federal judge in Texas to temporarily halt the controversial new state law that bans abortions after about six weeks.

The law went into effect on Sept. 1 after being upheld in a 5-4 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court. It is the strictest abortion law in the country. Critics say many women don’t yet know they’re pregnant at six weeks – around the time when a fetal heartbeat can first be detected – and the law makes no exceptions for rape or incest. 

"It’s clearly unconstitutional," said Attorney General Merrick Garland said last Thursday. "The obvious and expressly acknowledged intention of this statutory scheme is to prevent women from exercising their constitutional rights."

The Texas Heartbeat Act, or S.B. 8, was signed by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott in May and empowers private citizens to enforce it by allowing them to sue anyone who allegedly helps a woman get an abortion illegally.