- Texas Judge Says Doctors Can Use ‘Good Faith Judgment’ in Providing Abortions The New York Times
- A judge has ruled Texas’ abortion ban is too restrictive for women with pregnancy complications The Associated Press
- Judge’s order allows Texas women with complicated pregnancies to get abortions The Texas Tribune
- Editorial: Lawsuit over abortion ban highlights danger to women in Texas — and Missouri St. Louis Post-Dispatch
- Texas judge blocks some parts of state’s controversial abortion ban KENS 5: Your San Antonio News Source
- View Full Coverage on Google News
Tag Archives: Abortions
Arizona judge revives ban on most abortions after Roe overturned
Johnson cited the U.S. Supreme Court’s June decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, which established a fundamental right to abortion, as rationale for lifting the injunction. Roe had been the basis of the 1973 injunction that prevented bans on abortion from being enforced, Johnson ruled. And because the nation’s top court had returned decisions on the procedure to Congress and the states, that injunction can also be annulled, she wrote.
The Arizona law threatens abortion providers with between two and five years in prison. It originated from a 1864 law, and has no exception for victims of rape or incest. Some states did not update the laws on their books after Roe was decided in 1973, and the overturning of that decision has caused confusion from Michigan to West Virginia as to whether those laws still apply.
Johnson indicated that the older law, which was updated and codified in 1901, supersedes the recently passed law that was to take effect Saturday. “Most recently in 2022, the Legislature enacted a 15-week gestational age limitation on abortion. The legislature expressly included in the session law that the 15-week gestational age limitation does not ‘repeal’” the older ban, she wrote.
Ducey’s office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment late Friday. Brnovich thanked Johnson on Twitter, saying that the court had provided “clarity and uniformity on this important issue. I have and will continue to protect the most vulnerable Arizonans.”
Planned Parenthood Arizona, which was a plaintiff in the case, criticized the court for reviving an “archaic” law that it said would send “Arizonans back nearly 150 years.” The reproductive health organization, which can appeal the ruling, also said it “will never back down.”
Democratic gubernatorial nominee Katie Hobbs said in a statement that she was “mourning” the decision and pledged to veto antiabortion legislation if elected.
Johnson’s ruling means the older abortion ban “is no longer unenforceable” and Brnovich’s position as the state’s chief law enforcement officer “opens the door to prosecutions under that law,” said Kaiponanea Matsumura, a family law professor at Loyola Marymount University who previously taught in Arizona.
Barbara Atwood, a law professor emerita at the University of Arizona, predicted further legal and legislative wrangling over abortion in Arizona.
The 1901 law “directly conflicts with many laws regulating abortion in Arizona enacted since 1973,” she said, including those that permit the procedure in emergencies such as pregnancies that can result in the loss of major organ function for pregnant women and other pregnant individuals.
“It is an unworkable situation,” she said.
Indiana law banning most abortions takes effect
Washington
CNN
—
An Indiana law banning abortion at all stages of pregnancy with limited exceptions is now in effect, making Indiana the latest state to enact restrictions on the procedure after the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
The law was passed over the summer during a special session, when Indiana became the first state to pass a restrictive abortion law after the court’s decision.
The law provides exceptions to save the woman’s life, prevent any serious health risk to the woman, and for lethal fetal anomalies, up to 20 weeks post-fertilization. It also allows exceptions for some abortions if the pregnancy was a result of rape or incest during the first 10 weeks post-fertilization.
Under the law, abortion clinics are no longer state-licensed facilities and cannot provide abortions. The law now requires that all abortions be performed in a licensed hospital, or an ambulatory outpatient surgical center majority owned by a licensed hospital.
Abortion providers who violate the law are subject to a criminal penalty of up to six years imprisonment and a fine of $10,000.
Medication abortion is already prohibited in the state after eight weeks of post-fertilization age.
Abortion providers and a nonprofit that operates a pregnancy resource center in the state filed a lawsuit last month, seeking to block the ban from taking effect.
They argue that the law “will infringe on Hoosiers’ right to privacy, violate Indiana’s guarantee of equal privileges and immunities, and violate the Constitution’s due course of law clause through its unconstitutionally vague language.”
“Hoosiers experiencing or at risk of pregnancy complications that may seriously and permanently impair their health—but that do not meet the limited exception for serious health risks set out in S.B. 1—will be forced to remain pregnant and to suffer serious and potentially life-long harms to their health,” they said in their complaint filed in Monroe Circuit Court on August 31.
“Even patients whose pregnancies should qualify for S.B. 1’s narrow Health or Life Exception may still be unable to obtain an abortion because physicians will credibly fear that they will be prosecuted for the exercise of their professional medical judgment if government officials disagree with their assessment of a patient’s condition.”
A hearing on plaintiffs’ motion for a preliminary injunction is scheduled for Monday. Plaintiffs have also asked the court for a temporary restraining order.
Most abortions stop in West Virginia after lawmakers pass near-total ban
The legislation sent abortion providers scrambling to adjust to the new reality.
The state’s only abortion clinic, in Charleston, W.Va., announced on its website Wednesday morning that it would no longer perform the procedure.
“West Virginians will now have to travel hundreds or even thousands of miles away from their homes and incur massive costs to access essential, lifesaving care,” Katie Quiñonez, executive director of the Women’s Health Center of West Virginia, said in a statement.
The Women’s Health Center had an empty parking lot Wednesday. A printed sign on the door said the health center was “closed for staff rest” and would open the next day. Across the street, a crisis pregnancy center run by antiabortion advocates remained open to patients.
Around lunchtime, Elizabeth Gill, 56, who has often protested as a member of West Virginians for Life, pulled into the clinic’s lot. But there were no women seeking abortions for her to speak to.
Gill, who was adopted, said she welcomes the new ban, though she opposes the exceptions for victims of rape or incest. The ban allows abortions for adult victims of rape or incest until eight weeks of pregnancy, and until 14 weeks of pregnancy for child victims. She also said she hopes the Women’s Health Center closes for good.
“The baby has a God-given right to live the life and live out the purpose that God has for them,” she said.
Austin Walters, who has lived next door to the clinic for about six years and endured countless noisy antiabortion protests, said he opposes the new ban. The 30-year-old, who works at Home Depot, said he expects the ban to drive young people out of the state and possibly hurt the economy.
“The government, or the lawmakers, should not control women’s bodies,” he said. “This is one issue where the government needs to stay out.”
Betty Jo Stemple, another resident who lives near the abortion clinic, said she feels strongly that abortion should be a woman’s choice in the early stages of pregnancy and in instances of rape or incest. She said she had an abortion decades ago, after she was raped in her late 20s.
“When I missed that second period, I knew I had to make a choice,” Stemple, now 61, said.
She didn’t want to have a child “with those evil genes,” she said. “I didn’t want that growing in inside me.”
Like many Americans, Stemple said she supports restrictions on abortion later in pregnancy, but she believes hard-line antiabortion activists are taking limitations too far.
“Life is complicated,” she said. “Situations happen. … It’s not cut-and-dried.”
The strict ban in West Virginia passed despite signs in other states that many voters do not support restrictive limits on abortion without exceptions. Antiabortion lawmakers in South Carolina failed to pass a ban from conception without exceptions for rape and incest last week. Kansas voters rejected a ballot measure that would have opened the door to more restrictive abortion laws in August, and candidates who oppose abortion bans have been outperforming their polling numbers during primaries this summer.
Even the West Virginia bill initially stalled in July over disagreements between lawmakers over criminal penalties for doctors and a heated debate over what exceptions to include. Ultimately, lawmakers settled on exceptions for victims of rape and incest as long as they report the assault and seek an abortion before eight weeks of pregnancy for adults and 14 weeks for children.
Although a handful of Republican lawmakers balked at the exceptions and lack of criminal penalties for doctors in the final version of the ban, national antiabortion activists called it a “strong pro-life bill.”
“West Virginians have been committed to protecting unborn children and mothers from the horrors of abortion and now, in the Dobbs era, they have passed legislation to do just that,” Caitlin Connors, southern regional director for SBA Pro-Life America, said in a statement. Connors added that the final version of the bill ensures “mothers can get the care they need in the heartbreaking situation of an ectopic pregnancy, miscarriage or medical emergency – just like every other state with pro-life protections in place.”
Some abortion supporters worry West Virginia’s law will serve as a template for other state lawmakers. “What we saw in West Virginia may forecast what we see in other state legislatures later this year and beyond with legislatures adopting bans that include narrow exceptions that make it nearly impossible to access care,” Elizabeth Nash, principal policy associate for state issues for the Guttmacher Institute said in an email.
Nash said that the exceptions in the West Virginia ban are so narrow that many sexual assault victims will struggle to meet the requirements to qualify for an abortion.
“Patients will not be able to access care, including many of those who qualify for an exception, because the exceptions are written in a way as to make them nearly impossible to use,” she said. “It is expected other states will also consider similar exceptions as a way to convince the public that the exceptions provide some measure of access, but in practice the exceptions provide almost no access at all.”
The Republican-controlled legislature passed a near-total abortion ban with exceptions only to save the life of the pregnant patient and for victims of rape or incest. Gov. Jim Justice has not yet signed the bill, but is expected to do so soon. Once it is signed, the ban will take effect immediately and the law’s criminal penalties will kick in 90 days later.
Democrats and reproductive rights advocates say the ban goes so far that it outlaws abortion in almost every circumstance, and makes it difficult to access even for victims of sexual assault.
Even people eligible for an exception under the new ban face time limits and other hurdles. Adult sexual assault victims must report the crime and seek an abortion before the eighth week of pregnancy. Victims under the age of 18 can get an abortion before the 14th week of pregnancy if they seek medical care for the assault or report it to police.
Abortions may only be performed by doctors with admitting privileges at a hospital. Those physicians may lose their medical license but do not face criminal penalties for performing an illegal abortion. Anyone else who provides an abortion faces felony charges and up to five years in prison. Patients who choose to have an illegal abortion do not face any criminal penalties.
“It’s hard to overstate what a terrible day this is for the state of West Virginia,” ACLU of West Virginia Advocacy Director Eli Baumwell said in a statement. “The Legislature chose to strip away a basic human right to choose if, when, and how a person becomes a parent.”
It is unclear whether a path exists to challenge the ban in court. The ACLU of West Virginia had already challenged an abortion ban, before the U.S. Supreme Court overturned its Roe v. Wade ruling, because it conflicted with other laws that the state legislature had passed more recently. A state judge temporarily blocked that ban in July. But West Virginia voters narrowly passed an amendment to the state constitution in 2018 that declared “nothing in this Constitution secures or protects a right to abortion or requires the funding of an abortion.”
“There are so few cases that have gone very far,” Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond, said. “I don’t think we know” how a legal challenge will turn out.
If the West Virginia ban is challenged in federal court, Tobias said district judges in the Southern District of West Virginia and the 4th Circuit may be more receptive to plaintiff’s arguments than the federal judges who might consider challenges from states like Texas or Tennessee, where strict, near-total abortion bans are in place.
A federal challenge to a restrictive abortion ban has been filed in Idaho, where a judge blocked parts of the state law that would have prevented doctors from terminating pregnancies that pose significant health risks, if those risks were not life-threatening. Other strict limitations on abortion are still in place in Idaho, where abortion is banned except in cases of rape, incest or when a woman’s life is at risk.
And the fate of West Virginia’s law, if challenged in the courts, remains uncertain.
Graham to introduce bill that would restrict abortions nationwide
The name of his bill — which includes the nonmedical phrase “late-term abortions” — drew sharp criticism from abortion rights activists. Used almost exclusively by antiabortion activists, the phrase is generally understood to refer to abortions between or after 21 and 24 weeks of pregnancy.
“15 weeks is not ‘late term,’ particularly given the significant challenges to access around the country,” Christina Reynolds, vice president of communications at Emily’s List, wrote in a tweet.
While most people undergo abortions earlier in pregnancy, 15-week and 20-week abortion bans disproportionately affect patients with fetal anomalies, which are often detected at a 20-week anatomy scan, along with those who take longer to realize they are pregnant. These kinds of bans will also affect more people in a post-Roe America as abortion clinics struggle to accommodate a swell of patients from states where abortion is now banned.
Democrats swiftly responded to reports of Graham’s efforts with anger, and vowed that the measure would go nowhere.
“I will block any efforts in the Senate to advance a nationwide abortion ban — full stop,” tweeted Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), who is locked in a tough reelection bid. “We don’t need any more male politicians telling women what we can and can’t do with our own bodies.”
“I will never understand the Republican obsession with what goes on in your bedroom or your doctor’s office, but I do know it belongs nowhere near government. Your right to privacy is fundamental,” Rep. Gerald E. Connolly (D-Va.) tweeted.
The timing of Graham’s announcement is curious, two months after most Republicans justified the Supreme Court’s June decision to overturn Roe v. Wade by arguing that abortion rights should be left to states to decide. It will also come two months before the midterm elections, after abortion has already shown to be a galvanizing issue for some Democratic voters. While Republicans generally have praised the ruling overturning Roe, many have preferred not to focus on the issue ahead of the midterms.
Last month, Kansas voters soundly rejected a referendum that would have allowed state lawmakers to regulate abortion, the first time state voters decided on such an amendment since Roe was overturned. Last week, South Carolina Republicans fell short in their bid for a near-total abortion ban in the state. Planned Parenthood announced last month that it plans to spend a record $50 million in an effort to elect abortion rights supporters across the country this November, banking on the belief that abortion will help turn out Democratic voters.
Moreover, several red states already have stricter bans in place. “Trigger laws” restricting or banning abortion went into effect immediately after Roe was overturned in at least eight states, and several others are in various stages of legal limbo. Last month, Indiana passed a near-total abortion ban, the first to do so after Roe was struck down.
Before the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June, many Republican lawmakers and advocates had been pushing for a strict nationwide “heartbeat” ban on abortions, which would have outlawed the procedure after cardiac activity is detected, at around six weeks of pregnancy. Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) had been planning behind-the-scenes to introduce the legislation.
But months after the landmark abortion ruling, those plans have quietly fizzled. While that bill has been drafted, there is no timeline for Ernst or any other senator to introduce it, according to several antiabortion advocates close to the situation.
Instead, some leading antiabortion advocates are hoping that Republicans will rally around a 15-week ban, long denounced by many in the antiabortion movement because it would allow the vast majority of abortions to continue.
Dannenfelser, the president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, said she expects that Graham’s bill will be “universally accepted,” offering a path forward that a variety of Republican senators can support.
“I think the place to begin is where Graham is beginning,” said Dannenfelser in an interview before Graham’s bill was released. “Graham is the momentum and it will increase when he introduces [his bill].”
Some Republicans are not so sure. Since the Supreme Court decision, many have said publicly that they think abortion should be left to the states.
Even before an antiabortion amendment was resoundingly defeated in his home state, Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) told The Washington Post that he doubted that there was a future for any kind of national abortion ban.
“I just don’t see the momentum at the federal level,” Marshall said in a July 25 interview. “I think the legislative priority should be at the states.”
Republicans have been forced to reckon with a growing trove of data suggesting that abortion could be a decisive issue in the midterms, motivating Democratic and independent voters far more than was widely expected. Candidates who support abortion rights have overperformed in recent special elections, while key battleground states have seen a spike in Democratic and independent women registering to vote.
Some Republicans have grown increasingly hesitant to discuss the subject of a national abortion ban on the campaign trail. In Arizona, Republican Senate candidate Blake Masters removed any mention of his support for a “federal personhood law” from his website, legislation that probably would have banned abortion nationwide after conception. Masters’s website now says he would support a ban on abortions in the third trimester, at around 27 weeks of pregnancy, a far more popular position.
Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America applauded the change in a news release, saying that Masters “rightfully centered his position on what is achievable at the federal level.”
Abortion rights groups have seized on the looming threat of a national abortion ban, hoping to mobilize voters around the issue all over the country, including those in states where abortion rights are protected.
“For anyone who is in a state where abortion is not yet restricted or banned, we especially want to tell those voters, ‘This is everybody’s issue. It could come to your state too if they’re voting against efforts to protect abortion,’ ” said Jacqueline Ayers, senior vice president at Planned Parenthood Action Fund.
In both the House and Senate, Republicans are debating other types of abortion legislation that might be easier to pass than a national ban.
Rep. Michelle Fischbach (R-Minn.), co-chair of the Congressional Pro-Life Caucus, said in an interview that members have been discussing first-of-its-kind legislation that would give federal funding to crisis pregnancy centers, antiabortion organizations that try to dissuade women from having abortions and sometimes offer diapers and other aid to new moms.
Rachel Roubein and Marianna Sotomayor contributed to this report.
Google Maps will now label clinics that provide abortions
“For a number of categories where we’ve received confirmation that places offer specific services, we’ve been working for many months on more useful ways to display those results,” Lara Levin, a Google spokeswoman, said in a statement. “We’re now rolling out an update that makes it easier for people to find places that offer the services they’ve searched for, or broaden their results to see more options.”
Google said it works with authoritative data sources and also calls locations to confirm they offer abortion care. Places that the company is unsure of but still come up in search results will also get a label saying that they may not offer abortion services. TechCrunch reported the change earlier Thursday.
Google is often the first place people turn when seeking medical help, and crisis pregnancy centers have bought ads and structured their websites to show up in search results for abortion. Advocates have called for Google to stop showing the centers in search results or provide better labeling. An August report by Bloomberg News found Google Maps was showing results for crisis pregnancy centers about a quarter of the time when people searched for abortion care.
As more states make the procedure illegal, privacy and abortion advocates have raised concerns that the crisis centers may keep data on women who come looking for abortion care, which could be used by police in criminal investigations.
Abortion is now banned or mostly banned in 15 states, including Tennessee and Texas, whose bans went into affect Thursday. Abortion and privacy advocates have pressured tech companies to be more clear both in labeling abortion providers and in explaining how they will respond to police requests for data on their users related to abortion.
Last month, Google said it would delete its users’ location histories for visits to abortion clinics and other health-care providers.
Indiana becomes first state post-Roe to pass law banning most abortions
The Indiana House and Senate passed the GOP-sponsored bill earlier on Friday.
The bill would provide exceptions for when the life of the mother is at risk and for fatal fetal anomalies, up to 20 weeks post-fertilization. It would also allow exceptions for some abortions if the pregnancy was a result of rape or incest.
Indiana presently allows abortions up to 20 weeks after fertilization (or 22 weeks after the mother’s last menstrual period). The new law will go into effect on September 15.
The Supreme Court’s decision to eliminate a federal right to abortion sent the issue back to the states, and several Republican leaders have pledged to take action to curtail access to the procedure. West Virginia also has reconvened a special session, though it’s near-total abortion ban remains in limbo after the Republican-led legislature could not come to a consensus and adjourned, leaving abortion legal up until 20 weeks post-fertilization. And in Kansas, voters this week handily defeated an effort to amend the state’s constitution to remove the right to abortion.
On Thursday, the Indiana House rejected Republican-sponsored amendments that would have removed the exceptions for rape, incest and fatal fetal anomalies from the bill. Members of House Republican leadership were divided as Speaker Todd Huston and Speaker Pro Tempore Mike Karickhoff voted against the amendments, while Majority Leader Matt Lehman backed the amendments.
A House amendment also failed on Thursday that would have placed a non-binding question on the 2022 general election ballot as to whether abortion should remain legal in Indiana.
Emotional debate
Friday’s vote in the state House followed an emotional and sometimes contentious debate during which protesters’ cheers and jeers could be heard amid lawmakers’ speeches.
GOP House Rep. John Jacob of Indianapolis, who supports a total ban on abortion, said on the House floor Friday said he would not support the bill because it “regulates abortion which is baby murder,” while calling on his colleagues to repent before God.
Democratic Rep. Renee Pack of Indianapolis later fired back at Jacob and spoke of her own abortion in 1990 when she served in the US military.
“It took me getting to this statehouse for my colleagues to call me a murderer. I had to get that kind of abuse in this room, in this chamber. Sir, I am not a murderer, and my sisters are not murderers either,” Pack said on Friday. “We are pro-choice. That is what we are. We believe that we have command over our own bodies.”
During Friday’s debate, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle lamented the time crunch they were under to consider such a difficult topic.
“We are all trying, we are all discerning, none of us are sleeping, none of all are doing well. We’re walking around with … knots in our stomach,” House Rep. Ann Vermilion, a Republican from Marion, said on the floor Friday ahead of the vote, getting emotional.
“Everyone of us, 150, have cried this week and we are all trying to do the will of the people while equally being true to our faith and our core belief,” she said.
Particular attention has placed on Indiana after a 10-year-old rape victim from Ohio crossed state lines to get an abortion in June, after Roe was overturned.
The Indiana doctor who provided abortion services for the 10-year-old girl said the Indiana abortion bill “is going to hurt Hoosier women.”
“Medicine is not about exceptions,” Dr. Caitlin Bernard told CNN’s Brianna Keilar on “New Day” earlier Friday. “I can’t even begin to tell you how many patients I see in very unique situations that can’t fit in to those exceptions, that can’t have a list of what I can and can’t do. They can’t wait to check with their lawyer, I can’t wait to check with my lawyer. I need to be able to take care of patients when and where they need that care.”
Texas sues Biden admin for requiring abortions in medical emergencies
The suit follows new guidance from the Department of Health and Human Services that asserted federal law requiring emergency medical treatment supersedes any state restrictions on abortion in cases where the pregnant patient’s life or health is at risk.
Earlier this week, the Biden administration sent a memo to state officials reminding them of an existing law called the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, which “requires that all patients receive an appropriate medical screening examination, stabilizing treatment, and transfer, if necessary,” according to the HHS guidance. That requirement exists “irrespective of any state laws or mandates that apply to specific procedures,” the memo said.
Although the HHS guidance focuses on abortions performed in emergency situations, Texas officials have interpreted the memo as an order that all hospital emergency rooms must act as a “walk-in abortion clinic.”
“President Biden is flagrantly disregarding the legislative and democratic process—and flouting the Supreme Court’s ruling before the ink is dry—by having his appointed bureaucrats mandate that hospitals and emergency medicine physicians must perform abortions,” the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit challenges the Biden administration guideline on the grounds that it uses federal funds — because it ties compliance to Medicare funds and because Justice Department funding would be spent enforcing the federal law — in violation of the Hyde Amendment that bars federal spending to facilitate an abortion except in cases of rape, incest or the safety of the patient. The suit suggests that this guidance will “coerce healthcare providers to supply abortions outside the allowable scope under the Hyde Amendment.”
The complaint also argues that HHS should have subjected the guidance to a lengthy “notice-and-comment” process required of newly proposed rules from federal agencies. The Biden administration memo did not implement a new rule, but asserted that an existing law should be applied to abortions.
And it contends the guidance violates the Tenth Amendment, along with a law that forbids “arbitrary and capricious” actions by federal agencies.
Texas has a near-total abortion ban with an exception that allows doctors to perform an abortion in order to save the life of a pregnant patient.
The White House and HHS did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Texas Supreme Court blocks order that allowed abortions to resume
Texas has left a nearly century-old abortion ban on the statute books for the past 50 years while Roe v. Wade was in place. With Roe struck down, Paxton had advised that prosecutors could now enforce the 1925 law, which he called a “100% good law” on Twitter. However, the claimants have argued that it should be interpreted as repealed and unenforceable.
My appeal with the Texas Supreme Court is now on file. Texas’s pre-Roe statutes criminalizing abortion is 100% good law, and I’ll ensure they’re enforceable. Thankful for SCOTUS’s Dobbs decision paving the way to make Texas fully 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 until at least July 12 to allow clinics to offer abortions for at least two weeks without criminal prosecution, days after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade to end a constitutional right to abortion.
Clinics that had sued the state had stopped their abortion procedures after the ruling, but raced to take advantage of a fleeting reprieve Tuesday after Judge Christine Weems (D) ruled that a pre-Roe ban enforced by Paxton and prosecutors would “inevitably and irreparably chill the provision of abortions in the vital last weeks in which safer abortion care remains available and lawful in Texas.”
Paxton then asked the state’s highest court, which is stocked with nine Republican justices, to temporarily put the lower court order on hold, which they did in Friday’s decision. The state Supreme Court order allows civil, but not criminal, enforcement of the ban.
The flurry of litigation has thrown abortion clinics and patients in Texas into disarray, with many people rebooking and canceling appointments and travel plans as they scramble to navigate the new legal landscape.
“These laws are confusing, unnecessary, and cruel,” Marc Hearron, senior counsel at the Center for Reproductive Rights advocacy group said in a statement following Friday’s ruling. The American Civil Liberties Union, also a party to the legal proceedings, said it “won’t stop fighting to ensure that as many people as possible, for as long as possible, can access the essential reproductive health care they need,” according to staff attorney Julia Kaye.
BREAKING: The Texas Supreme Court blocked our injunction, allowing a total abortion ban originally passed in 1925 to be enforced.
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 in place even before Roe v. Wade was overturned. Last year, Gov. Greg Abbott (R) signed into law Texas Senate Bill 8, also known as the Texas Heartbeat Act, which bans abortion after about six weeks of pregnancy — before many people even know they’re pregnant — with no exceptions for victims of rape, sexual abuse or incest. It also employed a novel legal strategy that empowered ordinary people to enforce the law, by suing anyone who may have helped facilitate the abortion.
Tuesday’s temporary restraining order had been 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 was preemptively designed to take effect if Roe was indeed struck down, is scheduled to take effect in the coming weeks.
Caroline Kitchener and Meryl Kornfield contributed to this report.
Texas Supreme Court blocks order that resumed abortions
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The Texas Supreme Court blocked a lower court order late Friday night that said clinics could continue performing abortions, just days after some doctors had resumed seeing patients after the fall of Roe v. Wade.
It was not immediately clear whether Texas clinics that had resumed seeing patients this week would halt services again. 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 span of a week — illustrated the confusion and scrambling taking place across the country since Roe was overturned.
An order by a Houston judge earlier this week had reassured some clinics they could temporarily resume abortions up to six weeks into pregnancy. That was quickly followed by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton asking the state’s highest court, which is stocked with nine Republican justices, to temporarily put the order on hold.
“These laws are confusing, unnecessary, and cruel,” said Marc Hearron, attorney for the Center for Reproductive Rights, after the order was issued Friday night.
Clinics in Texas had stopped performing abortions in the state of nearly 30 million people after the U.S. Supreme Court last week overturned Roe v. Wade and ended the constitutional right to abortion. Texas had technically left an abortion ban on the books for the past 50 years while Roe was in place.
A copy of Friday’s order was provided by attorneys for Texas clinics. It could not immediately be found on the court’s website.
Abortion providers and patients across the country have been struggling to navigate the evolving legal landscape around abortion laws and access.
In Florida, a law banning abortions after 15 weeks went into effect Friday, the 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 wider access to the procedure than its neighbors.
Abortion rights have been lost and regained in the span of a few days in Kentucky. A so-called trigger law imposing a near-total ban on the procedure took effect last Friday, but a judge blocked the law Thursday, meaning the state’s only two abortion providers can resume seeing patients — for now.
The legal wrangling is almost certain to continue to cause chaos for Americans seeking abortions in the near future, with court rulings able to upend access at a moment’s notice and an influx of new patients from out of state overwhelming providers.
Even when women travel outside states with abortion bans in place, they may have fewer options to end their pregnancies as the prospect of prosecution follows them.
Planned Parenthood of Montana this week stopped providing medication abortions to patients who live in states with bans “to minimize potential risk for providers, health center staff, and patients in the face of a rapidly changing landscape.”
Planned Parenthood North Central States, which offers the procedure in Minnesota, Iowa and Nebraska, is telling its patients that they must take both pills in the regimen in a state that allows abortions.
The use of abortion pills has been the most common method to end a pregnancy since 2000, when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved mifepristone — the main drug used in medication abortions. Taken with misoprostol, a drug that causes cramping that empties the womb, it constitutes the abortion pill.
“There’s a lot of confusion and concern that the providers may be at risk, and they are trying to limit their liability so they can provide care to people who need it,” said Dr. Daniel Grossman, who directs the research group Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health at the University of California 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 they must be in a state where it is legal to complete the medication abortion — which requires taking two drugs 24 to 48 hours apart. She said most patients from states with bans are expected to opt for surgical abortions.
Access to the pills has become a key battle in abortion rights, with the Biden administration preparing to argue states can’t ban a medication that has received FDA approval.
Kim Floren, who operates an abortion fund in South Dakota called Justice Empowerment Network, said the development would further limit women’s choices.
“The purpose of these laws anyways is to scare people,” Floren said of states’ bans on abortions and telemedicine consultations for medication abortions. “The logistics to actually enforcing these is a nightmare, but they rely on the fact that people are going to be scared.”
A South Dakota law took effect Friday that threatens a felony punishment for anyone who prescribes medication for an abortion 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 could face prosecution for helping women fund and travel to out-of-state abortion appointments.
Yellowhammer Fund, an Alabama-based group that helps low-income women cover abortion and travel costs, said it is pausing operation for two weeks because of the lack of clarity under 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 Kelsea McLain, Yellowhammer’s health care access director.
Laura Goodhue, executive director of the Florida Alliance of Planned Parenthood Affiliates, said staff members at its clinics have seen women driving from as far as Texas without stopping — or making an appointment. Women who are past 15 weeks were being asked to leave their information and promised a call back if a judge signs the order temporarily blocking the restriction, she said.
Still, there is concern that the order may be only temporary and the law may again go into effect later, creating additional confusion.
“It’s terrible for patients,” she said. “We are really nervous about what is going to happen.”
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Izaguirre reported from Tallahassee, Florida, and Groves reported from Sioux Falls, South Dakota. AP writers Dylan Lovan contributed from Louisville, Kentucky; Adriana Gomez Licon from Miami; and Kim Chandler from Montgomery, Alabama.