The Wall Street Journal, owned by Rupert Murdoch’s NewsCorp, railed against Texas’ controversial new abortion law Friday, calling it a “blunder” and a “misfire.”
In a piece titled “Texas’ Abortion Law Blunder,” the paper’s editorial board made clear that it still had still some skepticism and criticism left over for the pro-choice side, but took on the anti-abortion law and its proponents directly.
“America is back fighting its endless legal war over abortion,” the board wrote. “A new front opened late Wednesday when five Justices issued an unsigned opinion declining to block a Texas law banning abortion after six weeks. Cue the hysterics about the end of abortion rights. But this law is a misfire even if you oppose abortion, and neither side should be confident the law will be upheld.”
The board carefully laid out how and why the law — under which citizens can collect $10,000 for reporting anyone who may be helping a Texan get an abortion after six weeks of pregnancy — might not last long-term, and what the consequences could be if it does.
“The law sets an awful precedent that conservatives should hate,” the board wrote of the new law, which went into effect this week after the Supreme Court declined to block it in a 5-4 ruling. “Could California allow private citizens to sue individuals for hate speech? Or New York deputize private lawsuits against gun owners? Texas argues that abortion providers don’t have standing to challenge the law because the state isn’t enforcing it and neither at this point is any private citizen. Thus there is no case or controversy, which is what courts are supposed to settle. This is technically correct and it is why the five Justices declined to enjoin the law.”
The paper also faulted Texas Republicans for handing “Democrats a political grenade to hurt the anti-abortion cause.”
“Sometimes we wonder if Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is a progressive plant,” the editorial continued. “His ill-conceived legal attack against ObamaCare backfired on Republicans in last year’s election and lost at the Supreme Court. Now he and his Texas mates are leading with their chins on abortion. How about thinking first?”
Read the takedown from the often-conservative paper here.