Full 5th Circuit rehears Texas abortion law

Texas should be allowed to halt a common second-trimester abortion procedure, the state’s lawyers told a federal appeals court Thursday in a hearing punctuated by debates over fetal pain and the rights of women to medically safe abortion.

A 2017 Texas law, which has never been enforced, prohibits the use of forceps to remove a fetus from the womb — what supporters of the law call a “dismemberment abortion” — without first using an injected drug or a suction procedure to ensure the fetus is dead.

Abortion rights advocates argue that the law effectively outlaws what is often the safest method for women in the second trimester of pregnancy.

A three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans blocked enforcement of the law last year, and other federal courts have blocked similar laws. But opponents of legal abortion hope the Supreme Court will take a new look at the issue.

Against that backdrop, a majority of the full 17-member 5th Circuit agreed to Thursday’s full-court rehearing.