New Jersey has joined a multi-state coalition in support of a bid to stop Texas from banning most abortions filed by the Justice Department, acting Attorney General Andrew Bruck announced on Wednesday.
The new Texas law became effective on September 1 after the U.S. Supreme Court, in a 5-4 vote, choose not to block it. It blocks most abortion procedures after the first six weeks of pregnancy.
Bruck believes the law in unconstitutional, which is the focus on the Department of Justice challenge.
“This case is about more than abortion rights. Allowing private bounty hunters to sue anyone who helps someone exercise their rights is an affront to the Constitution and an attack on all of our rights,” said Bruck. “We cannot allow this Texas law to become a new template for states to undermine constitutional and civil rights across the country.”
Gov. Phil Murphy said Texas’s “all-out assault on the health and safety of women is unconscionable.”
“Limiting choice and restricting access to safe reproductive health care endangers the lives of women and their families, particularly those in our most vulnerable communities,” stated Murphy. “Reproductive rights are human rights, and we will not sit idly by as these individual freedoms are under attack.”
Bruck said the brief he filed argues that the law will harm Texans who are unable to travel out of state to terminate their pregnancies.