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Texas abortion legal disputes took another twist overnight Friday after the state Supreme Court blocked a lower court order issued just days earlier that temporarily allowed procedures to resume.
The Texas Supreme Court in Austin granted an “urgent request for temporary relief” filed Wednesday by state Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican, staying a temporary restraining order issued earlier this week by a Harris County District Court. An additional hearing in state Supreme Court is scheduled for later this month.
Texas has left a nearly century-old ban on abortion in law for the past 50 years Roe v. Wade was spot on. with Rowe suspended, Paxton had advised that prosecutors could now enforce the 1925 law, which he called “100% good law” on Twitter. However, the plaintiffs argue that it should be construed as void and unenforceable.
My appeal to the Texas Supreme Court is now on file. Texas pre-Roe statutes criminalizing abortion are 100% good law and I will ensure they are enforced. Thanks for the SCOTUS ruling on Dobbs, paving the way for Texas to be completely 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 prosecution, days after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade to end the constitutional right to abortion.
Clinics suing the state had halted their abortion procedures after the ruling, but were scrambling to take advantage of a fleeting reprieve Tuesday after Judge Christine Weems (D) ruled that pre-Rowe the ban imposed by Paxton and prosecutors “would inevitably and irreparably chill the provision of abortions during the vital final weeks in which safer abortion care remains available and legal in Texas.”
Paxton then asked the state’s highest court, which is stacked with nine Republican justices, to temporarily stay the lower court’s order, which they did with Friday’s ruling. The state Supreme Court’s order allows for civil, but not criminal, enforcement of the ban.
Abortions in Texas can be temporarily reopened, according to the judge’s rules
The flurry of litigation has thrown Texas abortion clinics and patients into disarray, with many people booking and canceling appointments and travel plans as they struggle to navigate the new legal environment.
“These laws are confusing, unnecessary and cruel,” Mark Hearn, senior counsel at the Center for Reproductive Rights advocacy group, said in a statement after Friday’s decision. 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, have access to basic reproductive health care, they need,” according to attorney Julia Kay.
BREAKING: The Texas Supreme Court blocked our ban, allowing the total abortion ban originally passed in 1925 to go through.
This law has already forced countless people to carry pregnancies against their will.
Abortion is our right – no matter what the courts say.
— ACLU (@ACLU) July 2, 2022
Texas has had strict abortion laws before Roe v. Wade was cancelled. Last year, Gov. Greg Abbott (R) signed Texas Senate Bill 8, also known as the Texas Heartbeat Act, which bans abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy — before many people even know they’re pregnant — with no exceptions for victims. of rape, sexual assault or incest. He also used a new legal strategy that empowered ordinary people to enforce the law by suing anyone who might have helped facilitate an abortion.
This Texas teenager wanted an abortion. Now she has twins.
Tuesday’s temporary restraining order was seen by many reproductive rights advocates as a last chance for clinics to offer abortions, as Texas is one of 13 states in the country with a “trigger ban” in place. The “trigger ban” which is preemptively designed to take effect if Rowe was indeed removed, is scheduled to take effect in the coming weeks.
Caroline Kitchener and Meryl Kornfield contributed to this report.
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