June 28 (Reuters) – Abortion may resume in Texas after a US Supreme Court overturned a nationwide constitutional right and barred officials from enforcing a nearly century-old ban.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday overturned Roe W. Wade’s 1973 ruling on a last-ditch effort by abortion providers, a temporary restraining order issued by Judge Christine Weims in Harris County.
Under Texas law, which the U.S. Supreme Court has refused to prohibit, this order allows clinics to resume services, as abortion is already strictly restricted to six weeks under Texas law.
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“Every hour that abortion is accessible in Texas is a success,” said Mark Hiron, a lawyer for abortion providers at the Center for Reproductive Rights.
Further trial is scheduled for July 12. The Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
The decision comes amid a series of lawsuits filed in state courts by abortion rights groups seeking to slow or stop Republican-backed restrictions on women’s fertility, which are now in place or ready to do so in 22 states. read more
According to the GoodMatch Institute, a research group on abortion rights, Roe V. If Wade was reversed, Texas passed laws known as “trigger” laws. Those states include 13.
Following the Supreme Court’s decision, federal courts, with the support of Republicans, are revoking orders restricting abortion restrictions. On Tuesday, a federal appeals court allowed the six-week ban in Tennessee to go into effect.
Paxton said in a statement issued after the US Supreme Court ruled that the state’s 2021 trigger ban on abortion altogether would not take effect immediately. Providers say it could take two months or more.
But Roe v. Paxton said prosecutors could immediately pursue criminal charges against abortion providers under the old law that did not apply when Wade was in the book, but it remained Texas law.
Texas abortion providers argued in a lawsuit filed Monday that the 1925 ban had been lifted and contradicted the latest provocation ban passed by the Republican supremacist legislature.
The lawsuit was filed the same day judges in Louisiana and Utah barred authorities from enforcing their states’ “provocation” sanctions, and abortion providers in Idaho, Kentucky and Mississippi sued for similar relief.
The Oklahoma Supreme Court on Monday rejected a providers’ request to block the implementation of a total ban on abortion in an 8-1 judgment that came into effect in May, before a U.S. Supreme Court ruling but after a draft version was leaked.
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Report by Nate Raymond on editing by Bill Berkrodt in Boston
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