The U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals effectively ended abortionistsâ primary lawsuit over the Texas Heartbeat Act on Monday. The ruling from a three-judge panel ordered district court Robert Pitman to dismiss the challenges to the private enforcement of the Texas Heartbeat Act in Whole Womanâs Health v. Jackson. The last step is for Pitman to dismiss the case.
Since passage of the law, abortion proponents filed 22 lawsuits trying to stop enforcement of the Texas Heartbeat Act, 14 of which are against Texas Right to Life.
This case traveled to the U.S. Supreme Court twice, which dismissed several key defendants in December. The U.S. Supreme Court allowed Whole Womanâs Health v. Jackson to continue in the Fifth Circuit against only a few state agencies.
The Fifth Circuit then asked the Texas Supreme Court to weigh in. Texas Supreme Court judges unanimously agreed these state agencies do not have the authority to enforce the Texas Heartbeat Act under state law and returned the question to the Fifth Circuit.
With this ruling, all of the abortion industryâs targets became immaterial to the legal proceedings.
The Fifth Circuitâs instruction to dismiss the challenge to the Texas Heartbeat Actâs enforcement mechanism confirms what Texas Right to Life has known since the beginning: The abortion industryâs legal attacks are meritless.
The Texas Heartbeat Act continues to stop approximately 50% of abortions each day in Texas. We await a ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Womenâs Health Organization from the Supreme Court of the United States, which could overturn Roe v. Wade and allow states to protect all preborn children from elective abortion. Until then, we praise God for the continued legal success of the Texas Heartbeat Act.