NY Attorney General joins DOJ in challenging Texas abortion ban

ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10) -- New York Attorney General Letitia James filed an amicus brief in support of the U.S. Department of Justice's challenge on the Texas abortion ban. The brief was filed in federal district court and rejects the Texas law banning abortions after six weeks.

James was one of 24 attorney generals to file an amicus brief. The brief specifically supports DOJ’s motion for a preliminary injunction of the law, which went into effect earlier this month.

"While a handful of states have simply sought to take us backwards in time and do everything possible to undermine Roe v. Wade, we have fought these assaults over and over again, and won,” said James. “To be clear, under Texas’ draconian law, most women seeking an abortion will not even know they are pregnant by the time the clock runs out."

The Texas law was signed in May and prohibits abortions once medical professionals can detect a heartbeat, usually around six weeks and before most women know they’re pregnant.

The coalition argues in the brief that by banning nearly all pre-viability abortions in Texas, the law violates nearly 50 years of U.S. Supreme Court precedent affirming the constitutional right to terminate a pregnancy before viability. The brief describes how Texas created a structure that requires courts to provide money to claimants who bring cases against doctors who provide abortions and those who aid someone else in getting an abortion.

The brief also argues that forcing a patient to carry an unwanted pregnancy to term will lead to negative health and socioeconomic consequences, including placing people who are forced to carry a pregnancy to term at greater risk of life-threatening illnesses and harming their ability to maintain full-time employment.

James has a history of protecting access to abortion services. Earlier this month she filed another amicus brief which argued that South Carolina's "fetal heartbeat" abortion regulations are unconstitutional.