Texas Abortion Ban Put on Hold by Judge Calling It ‘Contrived’

A federal judge temporarily blocked Texas’s new ban on most abortions, saying the law outsourcing enforcement to bounty-hunting members of the public was “contrived” to get around a constitutional right.

The ruling Wednesday by U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman in Austin is a major early victory for the Biden administration, which sued to overturn the ban after it took effect Sept. 1. With the injunction in place, the strictest such law in the nation will go on hold during the rest of the case, at least for now.

The law prohibits abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy -- before ...