But the Center for Reproductive Rights interpreted the stay to mean the law cannot be criminally enforced. CNN reached out to Paxton’s office Saturday to ask if he agrees that the criminal charges remain on hold, but had not heard back as of Saturday afternoon. Paxton, a Republican, praised the state high court’s decision on Twitter Saturday. “Thanks to my appeal, (the Texas Supreme Court) slapped abortion providers and the district court that carried their water,” he wrote, adding that Texas’ pre-Roe abortion bans are “100% good law.” A separate Texas law banning abortions, the so-called trigger ban, will go into effect within the next few weeks. After the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade on June 24, Paxton issued an opinion telling local prosecutors they could now prosecute under pre-Roe law. Abortion providers in the state filed suit Monday against the handful of local district attorneys whose jurisdictions cover the locations of some of their clinics, as well as some state officials, including Paxton. On Tuesday, a Harris County Circuit Court judge issued a temporary restraining order against a 1925 abortion ban that allowed some clinics in the state to resume abortion procedures up to six weeks into pregnancy. The district court is scheduled to hear arguments on the issue at a preliminary hearing in the case on July 12, according to a release from the Center for Reproductive Rights. Meanwhile, the Texas Supreme Court has ordered the parties involved to file briefs by Thursday, July 7 at 5 p.m., on whether the district court has jurisdiction to enforce the criminal law. “These laws are confusing, unnecessary and harsh,” Marc Hearron, senior counsel at the Center for Reproductive Rights, said in a statement Friday. “Texas’ trigger ban is not scheduled to go into effect for another two months, if not longer. This law from nearly a hundred years ago prematurely bans essential health care, despite the fact that it has long been repealed.”
