Step one.

The Justice Department [has] asked a federal judge in Texas to temporarily block enforcement of the state’s new law that bans abortions after about six weeks.

This step, a major move by the Biden administration against the highly controversial law, follows a lawsuit filed by the Justice Department last week. The Biden administration asked the court late Tuesday to implement the preliminary injunction while the lawsuit plays out in federal court.

Texas’ abortion ban essentially stops the procedure in the country’s second-largest state. Most people WOMEN don’t know they are pregnant before six weeks.

In court documents, attorneys for the Justice Department said Texas’ law, also called SB 8, is unconstitutional and cannot stand.

A preliminary injunction “is necessary to protect the constitutional rights of women in Texas and the sovereign interest of the United States in ensuring that its States respect the terms of the national compact,” the attorneys say. “It is also necessary to protect federal agencies, employees, and contractors whose lawful actions S.B. 8 purports to prohibit.”

At least the Justice Department still knows this law is an attack on the rights of women.