Abortion Rights News: Texas To Appeal Judge's Temporary Ban On Law That Bans Procedure After 6 Weeks
Texas will appeal a federal judge's ruling that blocked the enforcement of a restrictive abortion law that bars the procedure as early as six weeks into pregnancy.
"We disagree with the Court's decision and have already taken steps to immediately appeal it to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals," Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton posted on Twitter. "The sanctity of human life is, and will always be, a top priority for me."
Paxton will appeal the case to the right-leaning, New Orleans-based Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.
The Texas law was blocked on Wednesday after having gone into effect on Sept. 1. The case is expected to reach the Supreme Court.
U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman called the draconian abortion law, known as S.B. 8, an “offensive deprivation” of a constitutional right. Pitman, who was appointed by Barack Obama, said the law was designed to bypass a woman’s constitutional protections to get an abortion, and that women have been “unlawfully prevented from exercising control of their own lives.”
Pro-choice activists lauded Pitman's decision.
“For more than a month now, Texans have been deprived of abortion access because of an unconstitutional law that never should have gone into effect. The relief granted by the court today is overdue, and we are grateful that the Department of Justice moved quickly to seek it," said Planned Parenthood President and CEO Alexis McGill Johnson.
According to the Washington Post, one of Texas' largest abortion providers said that clinics would soon resume abortion services for patients up to 18 weeks into pregnancy.
“This is ultimately the legacy of Roe v. Wade, that you have activist judges bending over backward, bending precedent, bending the law, in order to cater to the abortion industry,” said Kimberlyn Schwartz, a spokeswoman for Texas Right To Life. “These activist judges will create their conclusion first: that abortion is a so-called constitutional right and then work backward from there.”
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