Attorney General Merrick Garland says the Justice Department will protect women in Texas who are seeking an abortion. In a statement, Garland wrote the department would “protect those seeking to obtain or provide reproductive health services pursuant to our criminal and civil enforcement of the law known as the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act.” The Washington Post writes:
The announcement from the Justice Department comes days after the conservative-majority Supreme Court declined to block the Texas law that bans abortion as early as six weeks into a pregnancy, with no exceptions for rape or incest.
The law also allows anyone to file a lawsuit against any other person who has aided someone in obtaining an abortion, with the potential for a $10,000 payoff.
The Clinics Act was passed in 1994 and prohibits “the use or threat of force and physical obstruction that injures, intimidates or interferes with a person seeking to obtain or provide reproductive health services.”
