AUSTIN, Oct 15 ― A US appeals court yesterday refused a petition by the US Department of Justice to put on hold Texas's restrictive abortion law, which bars the procedure as early as six weeks into pregnancy.

The US Fifth Court of Appeal said the law could stay in effect pending "expedited” further proceedings in the high profile legal challenge.

The Texas abortion law, which took effect on September 1, makes no exceptions for pregnancies caused by rape or incest.

It also lets ordinary citizens enforce the ban, rewarding them at least US$10,000 (RM41,573) if they successfully sue anyone who helped provide an abortion after fetal cardiac activity is detected. Critics of the law have said this provision enables people to act as anti-abortion bounty hunters.

The Justice Department has argued that the law impedes women from exercising their constitutional right to terminate a pregnancy that was recognised in the Supreme Court's 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, which legalised abortion nationwide.

The department also argued that the law improperly interferes with the operations of the federal government to provide abortion-related services. ― Reuters