Unlike The U.S. Supreme Court, Judge In Texas Holds Revocation Of Roe V. Wade: Abortion Practices Reopen

Illustration of demonstrations supporting abortion rights in the US. (Wikimedia Commons/Charles Edward Miller)

JAKARTA - Abortions may resume in Texas, after a judge on Tuesday blocked officials from enforcing a nearly century-long ban that the state's attorney general said returned to effect after the US Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to procedure nationwide.

The temporary suspension order by Judge Christine Weems in Harris County comes as a last resort, by abortion providers to resume services after the US Supreme Court overturned the Roe v. Wade 1973 which guaranteed women's right to have an abortion, last Friday.

The order allows clinics to resume services, for now, in states where abortions are already strictly limited to six weeks of pregnancy, under a Texas Act that went into effect in September which was rejected by the US Supreme Court.

"Every hour abortion is accessible in Texas is a win," Marc Hearron, attorney for abortion providers at the Center for Reproductive Rights, said in a statement.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Twitter said he was immediately appealing the 'wrong' judge's decision, saying the pre-Roe statute is "100 percent valid and constitutional." A follow-up hearing is scheduled for July 12.

The decision comes amid a flurry of litigation in state courts by abortion rights groups, which are seeking to slow or stop restrictions on women's ability to terminate pregnancies that are now in effect or are poised to do so in 22 states.

Those states include 13 states that like Texas enact so-called "trigger" laws, which are designed to take effect if Roe v. Wade was cancelled, according to the Guttmacher Institute, an abortion rights research group.

Abortion rights protests in the US. (Wikimedia Commons/Senate Democrats)

Following the Supreme Court's decision, a federal court has lifted an order blocking Republican-backed restrictions on abortion. On Tuesday, a federal appeals court cleared the way for Tennessee's six-week ban to take effect.

Attorney General Paxton, in an advisory issued after the US Supreme Court ruled, said the state's 2021 trigger ban, which bans abortion almost entirely, would not take effect immediately. The provider says that it could take two months or more.

But, he said prosecutors could choose to immediately file criminal charges against abortion providers, under a different old law that has not been enforced while Roe v. Wade, it's in the books but it's still Texas law.

Meanwhile, Texas abortion providers in a lawsuit filed Monday argued the 1925 ban had been lifted and conflicts with a newer trigger ban passed by the Republican-dominated legislature.

The lawsuit was filed the same day judges in Louisiana and Utah blocked officials from enforcing their state's "trigger" bans, and abortion providers in Idaho, Kentucky and Mississippi sued for similar relief.

Separately, the Oklahoma Supreme Court in an 8-1 decision on Monday rejected a request by the provider to block implementation of a near-total abortion ban that went into effect in May, before the U.S. Supreme Court ruling but after a draft version leaked.

Meanwhile in Iowa, where the state's top court ruled Iowa's constitution did not include a "fundamental right" to abortion, Republican Governor Kim Reynolds said Tuesday he would ask the court to reinstate the previously banned "fetal heartbeat" law. prohibits abortion after about six weeks of pregnancy.