Perspectives: New Texas Abortion Law
AllSides Summary
Texas' new ban on most abortions, coupled with the Supreme Court's decision not to hear a challenge to the law, has revived sharp divisions on abortion among Americans. In public opinion polls, abortion consistently ranks among America's most divisive issues. The new law bans abortion if a fetal heartbeat is detected, which usually takes place six weeks into a pregnancy. The law also bars state officials from enforcing it, and instead authorizes private persons to bring civil action against people who perform or knowingly assist the abortion process.
News outlets and columnists across the spectrum have highlighted the ban this week. Left- and center-rated voices were often critical of the ban. Many raised concerns about victims of rape and incest not having abortion access; many also accused conservatives of hypocrisy for supporting personal choice on COVID-19 pandemic guidelines but not abortion. Some libertarian voices questioned the ban's constitutionality and its alignment with Supreme Court precedent. Right-rated voices often celebrated the ban, with some praising it for enacting "strong legislative protections for unborn children"; some on the right raised concerns that the ruling could hurt Republican chances in upcoming elections due to the general support among Americans for keeping abortion legal.
Featured Coverage of this Story
From the Right
Supreme Court Gets It Right on Texas Abortion Law
Just before midnight, the Supreme Court, over the incoherent objections of four dissenting justices, denied the request by Texas abortion providers for emergency relief against the Texas Heartbeat Act. The compelling procedural grounds on which five justices — Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett — ruled have no direct bearing on the substantive question whether the Court will overturn Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey in next term’s blockbuster abortion case, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. But the clarity, courage, and commitment to the rule of law that the five justices demonstrated...
From the Center
About six-in-ten Americans say abortion should be legal in all or most cases
Abortion has long been a contentious issue in the United States, and it is one that sharply divides Americans along partisan, ideological and religious lines.
Today, a 59% majority of U.S. adults say abortion should be legal in all or most cases, while 39% think abortion should be illegal in all or most cases. These views are relatively unchanged in the past few years. The latest Pew Research Center survey, conducted April 5 to 11, finds deep disagreement between – and within – the parties over abortion. In fact, the partisan divide...
From the Left
Texas' repugnant abortion law is pure Republican hypocrisy
The cry of "Freedom!" echoes across the land, rising from places like Texas, controlled by Republican officials who are using every tool at their disposal to ban mask mandates or vaccine requirements. It's curious, then, that as of Wednesday morning, the women of Texas are essentially banned from choosing to get an abortion.
The same politicians who declare that mask requirements are an intolerable intrusion by government into sacrosanct individual freedom, have just imposed the country's most restrictive abortion law since the Supreme Court made abortion legal in the landmark 1973 decision, Roe v....
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