(Austin) Friday night, the Federal Court of Appeals allowed Texas to resume ban on most abortions, a day after clinics across the state rushed to serve patients again for the first time since early September.
Texas called on Friday to ban the most strict abortion law in the United States, until this week, for most voluntary termination of pregnancy.
The petition sends Texas law known as SB 8 to the Fifth Federal Court of Appeals.
Even after Judge Robert Pitman suspended the law on Wednesday, many Texas doctors refuse to perform abortions, fearing they could face legal action. As a result, there were about two dozen clinics in Texas before Abortion Services – Act 1 came into force.There is September – Even though the law is suspended, they do not return to regular exercise.
Law in Texas generally prohibits abortion once the heart function is diagnosed at six weeks pregnant. The law is only enforced through lawsuits by individuals against abortion providers – an innovative approach that has helped Texas avoid the first wave of legal challenges.
The Office of the Attorney General of the Republic of Texas, Ken Paxton, cannot take responsibility for complaints made by private citizens that the law has not been “enforced by Texas” because the state has not enforced it.
His office has asked the court to act by Tuesday, otherwise it will act soon.
Mr. Pitman called the law a constitutional right to abort “abusive loss.” The lawsuit was probably funded by the Biden administration, which warned that other states could take similar action if Texas did not repeal the law.
Prior to Judge Robert Pittman’s 113-page order, other courts refused to suspend abortion laws before some women knew they were pregnant. These include 5e The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court approved the law’s application in September without ruling on its constitution.
Texas law leaves law enforcement only to citizens, who have the right to $ 10,000 in damages if they successfully sue abortion providers who violate the regulations, but against anyone who helps a woman perform an abortion. Republicans enacted legislation that would allow regression proceedings to be instituted if restrictions were removed by one court and then reinstated by another.
Judge Robert Pitman’s order is the first blow to Bill SB8, which has withstood a wave of previous challenges. Within weeks of the restrictions taking effect, Texas abortion service providers said the impact was “just like we feared.”
Pitman, who was appointed to the court by former President Barack Obama, wrote that “once the law SP8 came into force, women were constitutionally protected from illegally controlling their lives.”
Abortion service providers say their fears have come true since the law came into force. The Planned Parenthood Organization says the number of Texas patients at its clinics has dropped by nearly 80% in the two weeks since the law went into effect.
Some providers say Texas clinics are now at risk of closing as neighboring states struggle to cope with the influx of patients who have to travel hundreds of miles to have an abortion. Other women are forced to carry their pregnancy for a period of time.
It is not known how many abortions have been performed in Texas since the law came into force. State health officials say additional reporting requirements under the law will not allow September data to be published on its website early next year.
A 1992 U.S. Supreme Court ruling barred states from prohibiting conception when a fetus survives outside the womb at 24 weeks of gestation. But the Texas version has so far sued the courts because it leaves it up to individuals to file a complaint, not lawyers, which critics say is a boon.
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