BOSTON — Attorney General Maura Healey issued the following statement in response to a ruling from the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas granting a preliminary injunction of Texas’ unconstitutional six-week abortion ban, Senate Bill 8 (S.B. 8).

“We are grateful that the Court rightly blocked S.B. 8 while it is being challenged. Texas’ abortion ban is a blatantly unconstitutional scheme to undermine Roe. For weeks, patients in Texas have been forced to travel thousands of miles to nearby states to access safe, legal abortion. They have driven in the dead of night in secret, for fear of bounty hunters chasing their friends and families. Those who cannot afford the trip have been forced into pregnancy by the state of Texas, forever altering the course of their lives. This law is creating dangerous public health and economic ripple effects nationwide. Massachusetts will not abandon vulnerable people and their families. We will continue to defend Roe, abortion providers, and patients from these egregious and unconstitutional attacks.”

BACKGROUND 

On September 15, AG Healey led a coalition of 24 attorneys general in filing an amicus brief in support of the U.S. Department of Justice’s challenge to Texas’ six-week ban on abortions. The brief specifically supported the DOJ’s motion for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction of the law, which went into effect on September 1.