WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration is asking the Supreme Court to block the Texas law banning most abortions, while the fight over the measure’s constitutionality plays out in the courts.

The administration has also taken the unusual step of telling the justices they could grant the Texas law full review and decide its fate this term.

No court has yet reached a decision on the constitutionality of the Texas law, and the Supreme Court rarely grants such requests.

The law has been in effect since September, aside from a short pause due to a lower court's ruling which was stayed by an appeals court.

It bans abortions once cardiac activity is detected, usually around six weeks and before some women know they are pregnant.

The Biden administration is once again asking the courts to block a new Texas law that bans most abortions.

The Justice Department submitted its brief to the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals Monday.

It argues that Senate Bill 8 violates the constitution and is an "assault on the rights of its citizens."

The law bans abortions after cardiac activity can be detected, which is about six weeks into a pregnancy. Abortion rights activists have said that many women don't know they are pregnant that early.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals gave Texas until Thursday to respond to the Justice Department’s latest arguments, according to The Associated Press.

However, the law remains in place for now. Last week, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted a stay of a lower court's ruling, which blocked the law.

Abortion is once again banned in Texas after fetal cardiac activity can be detected, which is about six weeks into a pregnancy.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit granted a stay of the preliminary injunction for Texas' restriction abortion law.

Texas filed an appeal after a federal judge sided with the Department of Justice and blocked the state's restrictive abortion law.

The Court of Appeals gave the Department of Justice until 5 p.m. Tuesday to respond to Texas' request for a longer stay of the injunction.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton claims the lower court judge overstepped his bounds.

"The district court’s injunction violates the separation of powers at every turn," the court filing says.

Clinics reportedly began offering abortions hours after Wednesday's ruling. However, they will need to stop immediately or they will be in violation of the law, which allows citizens to sue anyone who is helping a woman have an abortion.

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The Biden administration urged a federal judge to block the nation’s most restrictive abortion law, which has banned most abortions in Texas since early September.

U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman did not say when he would rule following a nearly three-hour hearing Friday in Austin.

So far, abortion providers trying to block the Texas law have been rejected at every turn.

That makes a lawsuit filed by the Biden administration their best chance yet to deliver the first legal blow to the GOP-engineered law.

The law effectively bans abortion before some women know they are pregnant, and there are no exceptions in cases of rape or incest.

Enforcement is solely left up to private citizens.