USA: new law banning abortions in Texas after six weeks condemned

Supreme Court declined to intervene despite emergency petition from Texas abortion clinics

‘What is at stake with this law and those like it is the human right of people to control their own bodies’ - Tarah Demant

Responding to a new law taking effect in the US state of Texas today which bans the right of people to seek an abortion after six weeks of pregnancy, Tarah Demant, Amnesty International USA’s Gender, Sexuality and Identity Programme Director, said:

“This ban will have dire consequences; it endangers pregnant people’s lives and criminalises healthcare providers for providing vital care - it must be condemned unequivocally for undoing decades of safeguards for the well-being of pregnant people. “The only person who should ever make decisions about a pregnancy is the pregnant person.  “Yet this ban violently strips away people’s decision to do so even before most realise that they are pregnant.  “What is at stake with this law and those like it is the human right of people to control their own bodies.  “Amnesty International USA strongly condemns the bill and calls on the government to protect the rights of pregnant people, including the right to abortion.”

The controversial new law came into force in Texas earlier today after the US Supreme Court declined to intervene in the matter following an emergency petition from Texas abortion clinics. There are wider concerns that abortion rights in the USA may be further endangered when the Supreme Court comes to review Mississippi’s ban on the procedure after 15 weeks of pregnancy later this year.