Watch Live: Garland speaks as DOJ readies response to Texas abortion law
CBSN
Washington — Attorney General Merrick Garland is holding a press conference Thursday afternoon to announce a "civil enforcement action" by the Justice Department, which is expected to be related to Texas' controversial law banning abortion after about six weeks of pregnancy, sources tell CBS News.
Garland's remarks come after President Biden last week directed the White House to launch a "whole of government effort" to respond to a decision by a divided Supreme Court allowing the Texas ban to take effect, with a specific focus on the Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services. As the Justice Department explored options to challenge the Texas measure, Garland said it would continue protecting women seeking to obtain reproductive health services through enforcement of a federal law prohibiting "the use or threat of force and physical obstruction that injures, intimidates, or interferes with a person seeking to obtain or provide reproductive health services."Ashley White received her earliest combat action badge from the United States Army soon after the first lieutenant arrived in Afghanistan. The silver military award, recognizing soldiers who've been personally engaged by an attacker during conflict, was considered an achievement in and of itself as well as an affirming rite of passage for the newly deployed. White had earned it for using her own body to shield a group of civilian women and children from gunfire that broke out in the midst of her third mission in Kandahar province. All of them survived. She never mentioned the badge to anyone in her battalion.