The legal battle over abortion in Texas took a further turn Friday night after the state Supreme Court blocked a lower court ruling issued days earlier that temporarily allowed procedures to resume. The Texas Supreme Court in Austin granted an “emergency motion for temporary relief” filed Wednesday by state Attorney General Ken Paxton, Republican, staying a temporary restraining order granted earlier this week by a Harris County court. A further state Supreme Court hearing is scheduled for later this month. Texas has left a nearly century-old abortion ban on the statute books for the past 50 years while Roe v. Wade he was in his place. With Roe Paxton had advised that prosecutors could now enforce the 1925 law, which he called a “100% good law” on Twitter. However, the plaintiffs argued that it should be construed as repealed and unenforceable. My appeal to the Texas Supreme Court is now on file. The pre-Roe Texas laws criminalizing abortion are 100% good law and I will make sure they are enforced. Thanks for the SCOTUS Dobbs decision paving the way for Texas to become fully pro-life! https://t.co/6PKyQvTfob — Attorney General Ken Paxton (@KenPaxtonTX) July 1, 2022 On Tuesday, a Harris County judge issued a temporary restraining order until at least July 12 to allow clinics to offer abortions for at least two weeks without criminal charges, days after the Supreme Court reversed Roe v. Wade to end the constitutional right to abortion. Clinics that had sued the state had halted abortion procedures after the ruling, but rushed to take advantage of a fleeting stay Tuesday after Judge Christine Weems (D) ruled that preRoe The ban imposed by Paxton and prosecutors “would inevitably and irreparably weaken the provision of abortions in the crucial final weeks in which the safest abortion care remains available and legal in Texas.” Paxton then asked the state’s highest court, which has nine Republican justices, to temporarily put the lower court’s decision on hold, which they did in Friday’s decision. The state Supreme Court ruling allows for civil, but not criminal, enforcement of the ban. Abortions in Texas can be temporarily resumed, according to the rules The flurry of litigation has thrown Texas abortion clinics and patients into disarray, with many people reopening and canceling appointments and travel plans as they try to navigate the new legal landscape. “These laws are confusing, unnecessary and harsh,” Marc Hearron, senior counsel at the Center for Reproductive Rights’ advocacy group, said in a statement after Friday’s ruling. The American Civil Liberties Union, also a party to the lawsuit, said it “will not stop fighting to ensure that as many people as possible, for as long as possible, can access the necessary reproductive health care they need.” staff attorney Julia Kaye; NOTE: The Texas Supreme Court blocked our injunction, allowing the total abortion ban originally passed in 1925 to go into effect. This law has already forced countless people into pregnancies against their will. Abortion is our right — no matter what the courts say. — ACLU (@ACLU) July 2, 2022 Texas had strict abortion laws even before that Roe v. Wade overturned. Last year, Gov. Greg Abbott (R) signed Texas Senate Bill 8, also known as the Texas Pulse Act, which bans abortion after about six weeks of pregnancy — before many people know they are pregnant — with no exceptions for victims of rape, sexual abuse or incest. He also used a new legal strategy that empowered ordinary people to enforce the law, suing anyone who might have helped facilitate abortion. This Texas teenager wanted an abortion. Now she has twins. Tuesday’s temporary restraining order had been seen by many reproductive rights advocates as the last chance for clinics to offer abortions, as Texas is one of 13 states in the country with a “ban on activation.” The “trigger ban”, which was preemptively designed to take effect if Roe was indeed repealed, it is scheduled to take effect in the coming weeks. Caroline Kitchener and Meryl Kornfield contributed to this report.
