Texas Supreme Court Gives Abortion Ban Green Light
High court reverses lower court ruling and allows pre-Roe law to go into effect
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The Texas Supreme Court has given the green light for the state to reinstate its law that bans abortions.
The state's high court reversed a lower court ruling and allowed a pre-Roe v. Wade law prohibiting abortions to go into effect.
The law was originally passed in 1925 but had been overruled by the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling.
The state supreme court’s order is the latest addition to an ongoing feud between Texas government officials and abortion providers.
The move comes following the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
The 1925 law had remained on the books after Roe was decided in 1973 but the law prohibiting abortions was not enforced.
A Harris County judge temporarily blocked the abortion ban after abortion clinics sued.
The abortion clinics argued the law was effectively repealed when the Supreme Court decided Roe v. Wade, but the Texas Supreme Court disagreed and allowed the pre-Roe ban to go into effect.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton applauded the court’s decision as a “Pro-life victory!”
"Pro-life victory! Thanks to my appeal, SCOTX has slapped down the abortion providers and the district court carrying their water,” Paxton tweeted.
"Our state’s pre-Roe statutes banning abortion in Texas are 100% good law.
"Litigation continues, but I’ll keep winning for Texas’s unborn babies.”
Pro-life victory! Thanks to my appeal, SCOTX has slapped down the abortion providers and the district court carrying their water. Our state’s pre-Roe statutes banning abortion in Texas are 100% good law. Litigation continues, but I’ll keep winning for Texas’s unborn babies. pic.twitter.com/xgQuDtEXQu
— Attorney General Ken Paxton (@KenPaxtonTX) July 2, 2022
Paxton declared an annual holiday within the state attorney general’s office on the day the Supreme Court overturned Roe.
"Abortion is now illegal in Texas,” Paxton said.
"And today I’m closing my office—and making it an annual holiday—as a memorial to the 70 million lives lost because of abortion."
Shortly after the Supreme Court’s decision, Planned Parenthood stopped performing abortions in Texas after Paxton warned that some prosecutors might choose to enforce the pre-Roe abortion ban.
Paxton said:
Some prosecutors may choose to immediately pursue criminal prosecutions based on violations of Texas abortion prohibitions predating Roe that were never repealed by the Texas Legislature.
Although these statutes were unenforceable while Roe was on the books, they are still Texas law.
Under these pre-Roe statutes, abortion providers could be criminally liable for providing abortions starting today.
Texas is one of several states with a “trigger law” that would criminalize performing abortions 30 days after the Supreme Court overturned Roe.
Texas’s trigger law, signed by Gov. Greg Abbott in June 2021, is set to go into effect at the end of July.
“Texas is a pro-life state, and we have taken significant action to protect the sanctity of life,” Abbott said after the Supreme Court’s decision.
Texas was the first state in the nation to enact a “heartbeat law” last September that would ban abortion after a fetal heartbeat is detected.
