Abortion ban reinstated in legal tug-of-war
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated Texas’ abortion ban late Friday, hours after attorneys for the state had asked it to overturn a judge’s preliminary injunction. The short, unexplained order from a panel of three judges reverses the brief reprieve that abortion providers had seen after the injunction was granted Wednesday. The court is considered one of the most conservative in the country.
In related news, the ban has spurred a flood of women traveling sometimes hundreds of miles to access the procedure in neighboring states. The new law has only been in effect for just over a month, but already clinics in Oklahoma, Louisiana, Colorado and New Mexico have said they’re being inundated with Texas patients.