Texas’ restrictive abortion law is again in effect — for now — after a Friday order . It’s the latest twist in a dizzying legal …
Texas’ restrictive abortion law is again in effect — for now — after a Friday order. It’s the latest twist in a dizzying legal saga that advocates say is having “devastating effects” on providers and patients in the state. Nearly all abortions were banned in Texas for a month when the state’s abortion law went into effect in early September. Then in early October, a judge temporarily halted the ban, which prompted some abortion clinics to reopen. That lasted two days. A temporary order, issued Friday by a federal appeals court, could be reversed at any time when the court makes a more permanent ruling. But for now, it allows Texas to temporarily resume its ban on most abortions. So yet again, appointments have again been cancelled, patients in waiting rooms have been turned away, and many have been forced to make last-minute trips to neighboring states to receive services. And experts say the back-and-forth could continue. “This is not our first rodeo,” Molly Duane, senior staff attorney at the Center for Reproductive Rights, told USA TODAY. “The pattern we saw last night is something we are familiar with, and while it wasn’t unexpected, it was nonetheless extremely disappointing. The damage that has been done to patients is irreparable.” As the case makes it way through the appeals process, Duane said she expects it to quickly move back up to the U.S. Supreme Court. But Brigitte Amiri, deputy director of the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project, told USA TODAY there may be more legal back-and-forth on the way there, depending on what the 5th U.S. Court of Appeals ultimately decides. “We don’t have a crystal ball to predict the timing of it and what kind of back-and-forth we’re going to see, but certainly I think that we will see more of this in the coming weeks as the case makes its way quickly to the courts,” she said.
