Clinics that perform abortions in Texas scrambled Saturday to cancel operations and direct women who want them to institutions in other states, a day after the re-imposition of a law in the conservative state banning the voluntary termination of pregnancy after its sixth week.
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals decision temporarily reverses a Wednesday decision to suspend the law and effectively reinstates a ban on most abortions once the fetal heartbeat is detected.
The law does not provide exceptions in cases of pregnancy as a result of rape or incest.
On Wednesday, Judge Robert Pittman issued a decision suspending the application of the Texas law, saying that it violated a historic decision of the Supreme Court from 1973 in the well-known case "Roe v. Wade", which established the legal right for women to have an abortion.
As a result, abortions resumed after six weeks of pregnancy in some clinics in the state, the country's second most populous state (29 million people).
But Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican, appealed the decision and the appeal was accepted.
"Great news tonight," Paxton wrote in a tweet shortly after the decision, adding, "I will fight federal abuse at every turn."
"The Fifth Circuit Court has again ignored half a century of precedent supporting the constitutional right to abortion," Planned Parenthood's Planned Parenthood Association said in a statement late Friday.
Abortion restriction laws were passed in mostly Republican states, but were overturned by courts because they conflicted with Roe v. Wade.
Abortion opponents applauded the decision, and "our prayers have been answered," Kimberlyn Schwartz of the Texas Right to Life group said in a statement.
"The Supreme Court should step in to stop this madness," Nancy Northup, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights, said in a statement following Friday's ruling.
"Patients are once again thrown into disarray and fear, and this harsh law has hit hardest on those already facing discriminatory obstacles in healthcare."
"Right turn"
The law, part of a broader campaign by conservatives to restrict abortions across the United States, has drawn public backlash.
Tens of thousands of women took to the streets of cities across the United States last weekend to assert their right to make decisions about childbearing.
Advocates of a woman's right to terminate pregnancy have called on Congress to enshrine the right to abortion in federal law to protect it from any possible cancellation by the Supreme Court.
The Democratic-majority House of Representatives approved a bill to that effect two weeks ago, but the bill has no chance of passing it in the Senate, where Republicans have enough votes to block it.
The Supreme Court justified its lack of action with "new procedural issues", as the law entrusts "exclusively" to citizens with sponsoring the implementation of the procedure by inciting them to file a complaint against organizations or people who help women to have illegal abortions.
The Supreme Court's position in this case was seen as a "right turn" after six of its nine members became conservatives, including three appointed by former President Donald Trump.
On December 1, the Supreme Court is due to hear an appeal against a Mississippi law banning nearly all abortions after the 15th week of pregnancy.
If the court decides to drop Roe v. Wade, every state will be free to prohibit or allow abortions.
That means 36 million women in 26 states, nearly half of American women of childbearing age, will likely lose the legal right to an abortion, according to the Bland Burntwood Report.
No comments:
Post a Comment