Biden administration sues Texas over restrictive abortion law

The US Department of Justice has filed a civil lawsuit challenging Texas' controversial abortion law.

"The act is clearly unconstitutional," Attorney General Merrick B Garland said at a briefing on Thursday.

It bans abortions from as early as six weeks into pregnancy and allows anyone to sue those involved in the procedure.

Doctors and women's rights groups have strongly condemned the law, which took effect last week after the Supreme Court failed to block it.

SB8, also known as the Texas Heartbeat Act, came into effect after the Supreme Court did not respond to an emergency appeal filed by abortion providers.

In an unsigned opinion, the court said that although the appeals had raised "serious questions" about the constitutionality of the law, it could not block it due to complex and "novel" procedural questions.

Democratic President Joe Biden has been under increasing pressure to act. Last week, Mr Biden vowed a "whole-of-government" response. He called the Supreme Court's decision to not block the law "an unprecedented assault" on women's rights.

SB8 bans abortions following the detection of what anti-abortion activists call a foetal heartbeat.

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists has said the term is misleading and what is being detected at such an early stage of pregnancy is a portion of foetal tissue "that will become the heart as the embryo develops".

The law also gives individuals the right to sue anyone who provides or facilitates access to an abortion past the six-week point. It does not allow the women who get the procedure to be sued.

Critics, like the American Civil Liberties Union, have said that this leaves the responsibility for enforcing it on individuals, rather than local or state officials, and could give rise to abortion "bounty hunters".

Texas' Republican Governor Greg Abbott has defended the law, vowing that his state will "always defend the right to life".