State’s abortion law is rejected
Texas rule seen as a rights violation
A federal appeals court Wednesday struck down a Texas law that would ban a common type of second-trimester abortion, reasoning it violates a woman’s federal rights to the procedure.
The decision was narrowly decided, with two Democrat-appointed judges in favor, and a Republican-appointed judge dissenting.
Also, it came amid a contentious Supreme Court nomination fight with the future of abortion rights in question.
The law “unduly burdens a woman’s constitutionally protected right to obtain a previability abortion,” Judge James Dennis of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals wrote for the majority.
He added that it “forces abortion providers to act contrary to their medical judgment and the best interest of their patient by conducting a medical procedure that delivers no benefit to the woman.”
Judge Don Willett, a Texas jurist who was appointed by President Donald Trump, had yet to issue his dissent as of Tuesday afternoon.
A spokeswoman for Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Paxton, a staunch abortion opponent, is likely to appeal.
The state ban was passed in 2017 and signed by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott as part of a sweeping law that also mandated the burial or cremation of fetal remains; the burial mandate was overturned by a federal judge and is pending before the 5th Circuit.
The procedure in question, dilation and evacuation, is the standard method of abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy.
It’ss supported by the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, which has said bans on it force doctors “to provide lesser care to patients.”
Abortions are banned in Texas
after 20 weeks of pregnancy.
Doctors who violate the ban would have faced up to two years in prison, though the law never has taken effect while the litigation is pending.
Tuesday’s ruling comes as the Senate holds hearings this week over the nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court.
Barrett could be the deciding vote in a decision to overturn decades-old protections for abortion, including the landmark 1973 ruling in Roe vs. Wade.
Barrett declined to say Tuesday how she would rule on any abortion cases, but in the past repeatedly has signaled opposition to abortion rights.
Other courts have struck down similar dilation-andevacuation bans in Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana and Oklahoma.
Last year, the Supreme Court declined to review a lower court decision striking down the same ban in Alabama.
“Today’s decision puts a stop to Texas’ strategy to ban one abortion procedure after another until it is all but inaccessible,” said Nancy Northup, the head of the Center for Reproductive Rights, which represented abortion providers in the case. “Politicians should never decide what medical procedures a patient can and cannot receive.”
John Seago, the legislative director for Texas Right to Life, said the group plans to appeal the case, focusing on the rights of the fetus.
“We’ve always intended for this case to be appealed to the Supreme Court, even before it was clear that there would be one more conservative judge on the court,” he said.