Jan 17 – The U.S. Court of Appeal on Monday sentenced abortion clinics to a legal challenge to Texas law banning multiple abortions in the state.
In a 2-1 decision, the 5th New Orleans Regional Court of Appeal ruled that the Texas Supreme Court should answer legal questions before the Texas clinic challenge could resume.
Republican-backed law prohibits abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, a period when many women remain unaware that they are pregnant, and is one of the most effective ways to prevent abortions in the country.
Proponents of her case have been working to make the actual transcript of this statement available online. They cited an U.S. Supreme Court decree in December that allowed the case to proceed with certain licensing authorities as the law came into effect.
Marc Hearron, a lawyer for the Center for Reproductive Rights who represents clinics, told the appellate court in Jan’s court. 7 “Any further delays will not be in line with the Supreme Court’s handling of the case.”
Hearron did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday. A lawyer in the attorney general’s office in Texas Ken Paxton did not respond immediately to the same request.
Regional Judges Edith Jones and Kyle Duncan, both Republican presidents, voted to send the case to the Supreme Court of Texas. They asked the state court to consider whether the attorney general of Texas, the Texas Medical Board and other licensing authorities could take action to enforce the law if it was violated.
In opposition, Regional Judge Stephen Higginson, a Democratic Alliance nominee, said that submitting a case to the Supreme Court of Texas would “violate” the jurisdiction of the U.S. Supreme Court, adding, “Delayed justice has been denied justice.”
The Supreme Court is expected in June to rule on Mississippi’s constitution, which prohibits abortions at 15 weeks of gestation.
Mississippi and other anti-abortion activists asked the judges in that case to dismiss Roe v. Wade, a landmark decision of 1973 that legalized abortion nationwide.