DECISION TIME

Supreme Court Will Hear Texas Abortion Case on Nov. 1

In the meantime, the ban on ending pregnancies after six weeks stands.

The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear arguments in the Biden administration’s challenge to Texas’ stringent new abortion law, which bans the procedure after about six weeks and incentivizes citizens to sue rule-breakers. Both sides will present before the justices on Nov. 1, and in the meantime, the law will stay in place (over the angry objections of Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who said her colleagues had “thoroughly chilled” a woman’s right to choose.) The high court does not plan to rule on the matter of whether such an early ban is legal, but will focus on whether Texas overstepped by making private parties, and not the government, the enforcers of the new law.