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The legal dispute over abortions in Texas took a new turn on Friday afternoon, after the state Supreme Court blocked a lower court order issued a few days earlier that had allowed proceedings to be temporarily resumed.
The Texas Supreme Court in Austin granted an “emergency motion for temporary relief” filed Wednesday by state Attorney General Ken Paxton and suspended a temporary restraining order that had been granted to Austin. earlier this week by a Harris County judge. A new hearing in the state Supreme Court is scheduled for later this month.
Texas has left a nearly hundred-year-old abortion ban on law books for the past 50 years Roe against Wade was in place. With Roe overthrown, Paxton had advised that prosecutors could now enforce the 1925 law, which he called a “100% good law” on Twitter. However, the plaintiffs have argued that it should be construed as repealed and inapplicable.
My appeal to the Texas Supreme Court is now on file. Texas statutes prior to Roe criminalizing abortion are 100% good law, and I will make sure they are enforceable. Thank you for SCOTUS ’Dobbs decision that paved the way to make Texas totally pro-life! https://t.co/6PKyQvTfob
– Attorney General Ken Paxton (@KenPaxtonTX) July 1, 2022
On Tuesday, a Harris County judge granted a temporary restraining order at least until July 12 to allow clinics to offer abortions for at least two weeks without criminal prosecution, days after the Supreme Court overturned it. Roe against Wade to end the constitutional right to abortion.
Clinics that had sued the state stopped their abortion proceedings after the sentencing, but rushed to take advantage of a fleeting indulgence on Tuesday after elected judge Christine Weems (D) ruled that a pre-Roe The ban imposed by Paxton and prosecutors “would inevitably and irreparably reflect the provision of abortions in the last vital weeks in which safer abortion care remains available and legal in Texas.”
Paxton then asked the state’s highest court, which has nine Republican judges, to temporarily suspend the lower court’s order, which they did in Friday’s decision. The order of the state Supreme Court allows for the civil, but not criminal, application of the ban.
According to the judge, abortions in Texas can be resumed temporarily
The flurry of litigation has brought down abortion clinics and patients in Texas, with many people who have changed reservations and canceled appointments and travel plans as they struggle to navigate the new legal landscape.
“These laws are confusing, unnecessary and cruel,” Marc Hearron, chief lawyer for the reproductive rights advocacy group, said in a statement after Friday’s sentencing. The American Civil Liberties Union, also a party to the lawsuits, said it “will continue to fight to ensure that as many people as possible, for as long as possible, can access the essential reproductive health care they need.” , as reported. staff lawyer Julia Kaye.
BREAKING: The Texas Supreme Court blocked our court order, allowing a total ban on abortion originally passed in 1925 to apply.
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 had strict abortion laws even before Roe against Wade it was overturned. Last year, Gov. Greg Abbott (R) signed Texas Senate Bill 8, also known as the Texas Heartbeat Act, which prohibits abortion after about six weeks of pregnancy, before many people don’t even know they are pregnant, without exception. victims of rape, sexual abuse or incest. He also employed a new legal strategy that allowed ordinary people to enforce the law by suing anyone who helped facilitate the abortion.
This Texas teen wanted an abortion. She now has twins.
Tuesday’s temporary restraining order was seen by many reproductive rights advocates as the last chance for clinics to offer abortions, as Texas is one of 13 countries in the country with an “active ban.” The “active ban,” which was designed preventively to be enforced at the event Roe was canceled, is expected to take effect in the coming weeks.
On June 24, the Supreme Court voted to quash Roe v. Wade, leaving abortion decisions to the states. This is what you need to know and what comes next. (Video: Blair Guild / The Washington Post)
Caroline Kitchener and Meryl Kornfield contributed to this report.