AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The Texas Supreme Court has blocked a lower court order that allowed clinics in the state to continue performing abortions even after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned its landmark 1973 decision that upheld the constitutional right of abortion.
It was not immediately clear whether Texas clinics that resumed providing abortions just days ago would suspend services again after the ruling late Friday night. A hearing is scheduled for later this month.
The whiplash of Texas clinics turning away patients, rescheduling them and now potentially canceling appointments again — all in the space of a week — illustrates the confusion and stampede that has occurred across the country since Roe v. Wade was overturned.
A Houston judge’s order on Tuesday reassured some clinics that they can temporarily resume abortions up to six weeks into pregnancy. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton quickly asked the state’s highest court, which is stacked with nine Republican justices, to temporarily suspend that order.
“These laws are confusing, unnecessary and cruel,” Mark Hearn, an attorney for the Center for Reproductive Rights, said after the order was issued Friday night.
Clinics in Texas – a state of nearly 30 million people – stopped performing abortions after the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last week. Texas had left the abortion ban on the books for the past 50 years while Roe was in effect.
Attorneys for the Texas clinics provided a copy of Friday’s order, which was not immediately available on the court’s website.
Abortion providers and patients across the country are struggling to navigate the evolving legal landscape surrounding abortion laws and access.
In Florida, a law banning abortions after 15 weeks went into effect Friday, a day after a judge called it a violation of the state constitution and said he would sign an order temporarily blocking the law next week. The ban could have broader implications in the South, where Florida has greater access to the procedure than its neighbors.
Abortion rights have been lost and regained within days in Kentucky. A so-called trigger law imposing a near-total ban on the procedure went into effect last Friday, but a judge blocked the law Thursday, meaning only two abortion providers in the state can resume seeing patients — for now.
Litigation is almost certain to continue wreaking havoc on Americans seeking abortions for the foreseeable future, with court rulings halting access at one point and an influx of new patients from outsized providers.
Even when women travel outside countries with abortion bans, they may have fewer options to terminate their pregnancies because the prospect of criminal prosecution follows them.
Planned Parenthood of Montana this week stopped providing medical abortions to patients who live in states with bans “to minimize the potential risk to providers, health center staff and patients in the face of a rapidly changing landscape.”
Planned Parenthood of the North Central States, which offers the procedure in Minnesota, Iowa and Nebraska, tells its patients that they must take both pills in the scheme in a state that allows abortions.
The use of abortion pills has been the most common method of terminating a pregnancy since 2000, when the US Food and Drug Administration approved mifepristone, the main drug used in medical abortions. Taken with misoprostol, a drug that causes spasms that empty the womb, it is an abortion pill.
“There’s a lot of confusion and concern that providers may be at risk and trying to limit their liability so they can provide care to people who need it,” said Dr. Daniel Grossman, who led the research group. Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health at UC San Francisco.
Emily Bisek, a spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood North Central States, said that in an “unknown and murky” legal environment, they decided to tell patients that they must be in a state where it is legal to complete a medical abortion — which requires taking the two drugs 24 to 48 hours apart. She said she expected most patients from states with bans to opt for surgical abortions.
Access to the pill has become a key battle for abortion rights, with the Biden administration preparing to argue that states cannot ban a drug that has been approved by the FDA.
Kim Floren, who runs a South Dakota abortion fund called the Justice Empowerment Network, said the development would further limit women’s choices.
“The purpose of these laws is to scare people anyway,” Floren said of states’ bans on abortions and telemedicine consultations for medication abortions. “The logistics of actually implementing them are a nightmare, but they’re counting on the fact that people will be scared.”
A South Dakota law went into effect Friday that makes it a felony for anyone who prescribes abortion drugs without a license from the South Dakota Board of Medical and Osteopathic Examiners.
In Alabama, Attorney General Steve Marshall’s office said it is reviewing whether people or groups can be prosecuted for helping women finance and travel to out-of-state abortion appointments.
The Yellowhammer Fund, an Alabama-based group that helps low-income women cover abortions and travel expenses, said it was suspending operations for two weeks because of a lack of clarity in state law.
“This is a temporary pause and we’re going to figure out how we can legally get you money and resources and what that looks like,” said Kelsey McLain, Yellowhammer’s director of health access.
Laura Goodhue, executive director of the Florida Alliance for Planned Parenthood, said staff members at his clinics have seen women drive from as far as Texas without stopping — or making an appointment. Women past 15 weeks were asked to leave their information and were promised a call back if a judge signed the order temporarily blocking the restriction, she said.
However, there are concerns that the order may only be temporary and the law could come back into effect later, creating further confusion.
“It’s terrible for patients,” she said. “We’re really nervous about what’s going to happen.”
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Izaguirre reports from Tallahassee, Florida, and Groves reports from Sioux Falls, South Dakota. AP writers Dylan Lovan in Louisville, Ky.; Adriana Gomez Licon in Miami; and Kim Chandler in Montgomery, Alabama, contributed to this report.
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