President Biden and congressional Democrats are vowing a response to the six-week abortion ban in Texas that recently went into effect that bans abortion in almost all cases including rape and incest.

The Conservative-dominated Supreme Court voted 5-4 to refuse a last-minute request to block the law from taking effect. All three Trump-appointed justices voted in the majority.

The ban would incentivize citizens to sue anyone who aids and abets abortion including medical professionals or anyone who would provide pregnant women with transportation to a clinic. A successful lawsuit would make the plaintiff entitled to $10,000 from the violator.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said “This ban necessitates codifying Roe v. Wade,” the landmark decision where the Supreme Court ruled 7-2 that women have the right to get an abortion within the first trimester of pregnancy. Pelosi criticized the court’s decision saying its “cowardly, dark-of-night decision to uphold a flagrantly unconstitutional assault on women’s rights and health is staggering.”

Pelosi added that Democrats will vote to pass the Women’s Health Protection Act in response to the new Texas law after the Congressional recess concludes. The bill will ensure the rights of women to get an abortion and for medical providers to perform one.

“Upon our return, the House will bring up congresswoman Judy Chu’s Women’s Health Protection Act to enshrine into law reproductive healthcare for all women across America,” Pelosi said.

The Women’s Health Protection Act aims to reverse over 500 restrictions introduced by Republicans in a number of different states but will face an uphill battle if it were to reach the deadlocked Senate. Under Senate rule, the filibuster would make it impossible for the bill to pass as 48 Democrats back the proposed legislation along with Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Lisa Murkowski, (R-Alaska), but it still falls ten votes short.

Democrats could vote to repeal the filibuster but would need all 50 votes to do so. Both Sen. Joe Manchin, (D-W.Va.), and Kyrsten Sinema, (D- Arizona), have expressed reluctance to do so.

President Biden has called the new Texas law an “unprecedented assault” on women’s reproductive rights, and that the law is “almost un-American” and that it creates a “vigilante system.”

Biden announced he is directing his Gender Policy Council and the White House Counsel's Office to "launch a whole-of-government effort to respond to this decision, looking specifically to the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Justice to see what steps the federal government can take to ensure that women in Texas have access to safe and legal abortions as protected by Roe.”

Attorney General Merrick Garland said the Justice Department is "evaluating all options to protect the constitutional rights of women, including access to abortion."

Pro-Choice advocates worry the new Texas law may open the floodgates for more states to pass similar laws. Without Congressional action, there is little the Biden administration can do to fight back against the six-week abortion ban

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