DALLAS — Texas abortion clinics can temporarily resume abortions up to six weeks of pregnancy, following a ruling from a state court blocking the enforcement of pre-Roe laws banning abortion.
The court granted a temporary restraining order Tuesday in response to a lawsuit filed June 27 by the Center for Reproductive Rights and other groups on behalf of several Texas abortion providers. Another hearing is set for July 12.
All Texas clinics stopped providing abortions on June 24 after the Supreme Court overturned Roe vs. Wade, the 1973 ruling in a case from Dallas County that established the constitutional right to an abortion.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton issued an advisory shortly after the Supreme Court’s ruling, stating that the trigger law on the books will go in to effect 30 days after a judgment is issued overturning Roe vs. Wade.
A judgment is typically issued at least 25 days after the opinion, meaning the state’s trigger ban will likely not take effect for more than two months.
However, Paxton said providers could be criminally liable based on pre-Roe laws that were unenforceable before the Supreme Court’s judgment, leading Texas clinics to stop providing abortions.
Marc Hearron, senior counsel for the Center for Reproductive Rights, said it was a relief that the court granted the temporary restraining order.
“This decision will allow abortion services to resume at many clinics across the state, connecting Texans to the essential health care they need,” Hearron said in a statement. Every hour that abortion is accessible in Texas is a victory.”
Amy Hagstrom Miller, CEO of Whole Woman’s Health, tweeted shortly after the ruling: “We can resume abortions care in Texas.” Whole Woman’s Health has four Texas clinics, including locations in Fort Worth and McKinney.
Planned Parenthood was not one of the plaintiffs in the case, and will not resume abortions at this time, the organization announced.
“This is a rapidly evolving situation and legal teams are still reviewing this order and its potential implications for Planned Parenthood health centers in Texas,” according to a joint statement from Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas, Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast and Planned Parenthood South Texas.
Though some clinics will resume providing abortions, these are likely to be short lived, as the state’s trigger law barring almost all abortions will go into effect in the coming months.
Texas is one of several states with trigger on the books. A flurry of legal action has take place in other states, with many challenges successful in temporarily blocking the bans from taking effect.
In Louisiana, a New Orleans judge temporarily blocked the state’s trigger ban after abortion rights advocates argued the law was unclear. A ban was also temporarily blocked in Utah.
There are further pending legal challenges in Mississippi, where Jackson’s Women’s Health Organization, the clinic at the center of the case that overturned Roe vs. Wade, challenged a trigger ban in the state, arguing it is not enforceable under the state’s constitution.
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