The Fifth Circuit has left the six week abortion ban in Texas in effect in a ruling that also transfers the case to the Texas Supreme Court, the latest in a series of legal fights over the controversial law.
The nation’s most restrictive abortion law remains in effect in Texas after a federal appeals court on Monday rejected a request from abortion providers to immediately return their legal challenge to a trial court judge who had previously blocked the measure.
In a 2-to-1 decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit temporarily transferred the case to the Texas Supreme Court, a step requested by state officials that could leave the dispute in limbo for months.
The court’s majority said its decision was “consistent” with the Supreme Court’s ruling last month and necessary to avoid “creating needless friction” with the state court over interpretation of the Texas law.
Abortion providers had warned the 5th Circuit that any diversion from the district court in Austin would continue to restrict access to the procedure after about six weeks into pregnancy, when many women do not yet realize they are pregnant.
The latest development follows a U.S. Supreme Court decision that left the ban in place while allowing providers to challenge the law’s unusual enforcement structure. The high court has twice refused to block the Texas law, which makes no exception for rape or incest and is at odds with the landmark Roe v. Wade decision guaranteeing a right to abortion before viability, usually around 23 weeks.
In effect since Sept. 1, the law has forced Texans to cross state lines to terminate their pregnancies after the six-week mark.
The dissenting judge, Stephen A. Higginson, said Monday that his colleagues were second-guessing the Supreme Court and allowing Texas officials to re-litigate an issue they had already lost.
“This further, second-guessing redundancy, without time limit, deepens my concern that justice delayed is justice denied, here impeding relief ordered by the Supreme Court,” wrote Higginson, a nominee of President Barack Obama.
The Supreme Court is separately considering a Mississippi law that bans most abortions after 15 weeks. The court’s conservative justices signaled at oral argument that they were open to overturning Roe, the nearly 50-year old decision.
Read the Fifth Circuits decision for yourself here:
I’m beginning to think the federal judiciary really, really, wants to dodge this bullet.Report
Except it’s been fired. There’s no dodging it. They’re just hoping a lower court does something they can live with. If it was going through practically any of the other circuit courts they might get lucky.
Nope, they’re going to have to deal with this after years of clearly refusing to touch it but also letting it stand, pissing away their integrity to both sides. I’m sure that means they MUST be in the middle, right?Report
Authoritarian cowards.Report
Wait, women in Texas are going to other states to get abortions?
And no one’s sued the car dealerships that sold them their cars yet?Report
Someone should – and sue the airlines for tickets etc. Southwest would put the hammer on Greg Abbott quickly if they did.Report