As Texas gears up to fight over the new law mandating all women who want abortions must first have an ultrasound, the judge refuses the law’s sponsors’ request to join the suit.

Via DallasNews.com:

“Both parties in this case are well-represented by competent and diligent counsel, and neither they nor this Court needs assistance from Senator Patrick or Representative MIller — particularly when much of their ‘assistance’ is nothing more than thinly-veiled rhetoric,” [U.S. District Judge Sam] Sparks wrote in his order denying their entry and filed with the court Tuesday.

“This is a federal lawsuit about the constitutionality of a statute, not a soapbox for politicians or a sounding board for public opinion,” Sparks stated.

Texas’s law would force almost all women seeking abortions to undergo a vaginal ultrasound and then hear a detailed description of the fetus before having the procedure.