A majority of Supreme Court justices on Monday seemed open to allowing abortion providers in Texas to challenge a controversial law currently in place that bans the procedure in the state after just six weeks of pregnancy.

However, it's unclear when the high court could hand down a decision that would allow such a lawsuit to move forward, or if such a ruling would suspend the law while courts consider the challenge.

According to CNN and The Associated Press, Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett — both of whom were appointed by President Donald Trump — raised questions about the structure of the Texas law during a three-hour hearing on Monday.

In September, both Barrett and Kavanaugh sided with the four other conservative justices in allowing the law, SB8, to go into effect. However, on Monday, they raised key questions as to how the law is enforced.

The law bans abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected, which usually occurs at about six weeks, or before many women know they are pregnant. When the law went into effect earlier this year, it shut down practically all abortion services in the state.

But the law has an unusual structure that has made it difficult to challenge. It specifically outlaws the state executive branch from enforcing it. Instead, it calls on private citizens to file lawsuits seeking $10,000 in damages from anyone who aids or abets a person from seeking an illegal abortion.

Lawyers representing Texas say that because the state is not enforcing the law, a lawsuit cannot stop it from being enforced.

Kavanaugh on Monday called the law's structure a "loophole."

"There's a loophole that's been exploited here, or used here," Kavanaugh said, according to The Associated Press. The "loophole" to which he was referring was set up in a 1908 Supreme Court case, which according to The New York Times, set precedence in how the government could go about blocking potentially unconstitutional legislation.

Kavanaugh's and Barrett's questioning implied that a majority of justices were leaning toward granting abortion providers the chance to challenge the law.

However, in a separate challenge brought by the Department of Justice, CNN reports that a majority of conservative justices expressed reservations about how broad the Biden Administration's argument was in seeking a challenge.

While the legality of abortion was not at issue during Monday's hearing, the Supreme Court's eventual ruling on the case could have massive implications for abortion access in Texas and how other conservative-leaning states could seek to limit abortions in the future.

The Biden administration is again urging courts to step in and suspend a new Texas law that has banned most abortions in the state since early September.

The Justice Department on Monday night asked an appeals court to block the law and allow abortions to resume in the state. The request came as clinics in Oklahoma, Louisiana and other states remain busy, with Texas patients journeying hundreds of miles away to get care.

Last week, a federal judge briefly blocked the law for a brief 48-hour window, but it was quickly reinstated upon appeal.

The coming days could prove crucial for the future of the legislation and women seeking urgent reproductive care, as courts decide whether to keep the law in place while its legality is sorted out.

The Texas law, SB8, is the most restrictive anti-abortion law that's gone into effect since the Supreme Court granted women the Constitutional right to an abortion in Roe v. Wade. The law bans all abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected, which typically occurs around the sixth week of pregnancy — before many women even know they're pregnant.

However, SB8 specifically bans executive branch officials from enforcing the law. Instead, it deputizes private citizens and incentivizes them to sue anyone who conducts or assists in providing a woman with an illegal abortion. Those who successfully sue can win $10,000 and face few consequences if losing a lawsuit.

By putting the onus of enforcement on private citizens, SB8 has mostly been able to evade suspension from appeals courts. On Monday, the Justice Department claimed that if the law stays in place, it could provide a blueprint for other states to restrict Constitutional rights.

"If Texas's scheme is permissible, no constitutional right is safe from state-sanctioned sabotage of this kind," the Justice Department told the appeals court.

In wording that seemed to be a message to the Supreme Court, the Justice Department raised the specter that if allowed to stand, the legal structure created in enacting the law could be used to circumvent even the Supreme Court's rulings in 2008 and 2010 on gun rights and campaign financing.