AUSTIN, Texas (AP) – Texas Supreme Court has blocked a lower court order that had allowed state clinics to continue having abortions even after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned its historic ruling of 1973 which confirmed the constitutional right to abortion.
It was not immediately clear whether Texas clinics that resumed abortions a few days ago would stop services again after the sentence Friday night. A hearing is scheduled for later this month.
The whipping of Texas clinics rejecting patients, rescheduling them and now potentially canceling appointments again, all within a week, illustrates the confusion and struggle that has occurred throughout the country since Roe v. Wade was canceled.
An order from a Houston judge on Tuesday assured some clinics that they could temporarily resume abortions up to six weeks pregnant. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton quickly asked the state’s highest court, which has nine Republican judges, to temporarily suspend the order.
“These laws are confusing, unnecessary, and cruel,” Reproductive Rights Center attorney Marc Hearron said after the order was issued Friday night.
Clinics in Texas, a state of nearly 30 million people, stopped having abortions after the U.S. Supreme Court last week overturned Roe v. Texas had left an abortion ban on books for the past 50 years while Roe was in place.
Attorneys at the Texas clinics provided a copy of Friday’s order, which was not immediately available on the court’s website.
Abortion providers and patients across the country have been struggling to navigate the evolving legal landscape around laws and access to abortion.
In Florida, a law banning abortion after 15 weeks went into effect Friday, the day after a judge declared it a violation of the state constitution and said it would sign an order to temporarily block the law. next week. The ban could have broader implications in the south, where Florida has wider access to the procedure than its neighbors.
Abortion rights have been lost and recovered in a few days in Kentucky. The so-called trigger law that imposed an almost total ban on the procedure went into effect last Friday, but a judge blocked the law on Thursday, meaning the state’s only two abortion providers can resume seeing patients , at the moment.
It is almost certain that the legal dispute will continue to wreak havoc on Americans seeking abortions in the near future, with court rulings disrupting access at one point and an influx of new patients from overwhelming providers outside the US. state.
Even when women travel out of states with abortion bans, they may have fewer options to end their pregnancies as the prospect of processing haunts them.
Planned Parenthood of Montana this week stopped providing drug-free abortions to patients living in banned states “to minimize the potential risk to providers, health center staff, and patients in the face of a rapidly changing landscape.”
Planned Parenthood North Central States, which offers the procedure in Minnesota, Iowa and Nebraska, is telling its patients to take both pills on the regimen in a state that allows for abortion.
The use of abortion pills has been the most common method to end a pregnancy since 2000, when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved mifepristone, the leading drug used in drug abortions. . Taken with misoprostol, a cramping drug that empties the uterus, it is the abortion pill.
“There is a lot of confusion and concern that providers may be at risk, and they are trying to limit their liability so that they can provide care to people who need it,” said Dr. Daniel Grossman, who heads the group. Advancing New Standards research. in Reproductive Health at the University of California at San Francisco.
Emily Bisek, a spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood North Central States, said that in a “unknown and murky” legal environment, they decided to tell patients that they must be in a state where it is legal to complete abortion with medication, which requires taking two drugs. medications 24 to 48 hours apart. He said most patients with banned states are expected to opt for surgical abortions.
Access to pills has become a key battle in abortion rights, with the Biden administration preparing to argue that states cannot ban a drug that has received FDA approval. .
Kim Floren, who runs an abortion fund in South Dakota called the Justice Empowerment Network, said the development would further limit women’s options.
“Anyway, the purpose of these laws is to scare people,” Floren said of the state’s bans on abortions and telemedicine consultations for drug abortions. “The logistics to enforce them are a nightmare, but they are based on the fact that people will be afraid.”
A South Dakota law went into effect Friday that threatens criminal punishment for anyone who prescribes drugs for an abortion without a license from the South Dakota Board of Medical and Osteopathic Examiners.
In Alabama, Attorney General Steve Marshall’s office said it is reviewing whether individuals or groups could be prosecuted for helping women fund and travel to out-of-state abortion appointments.
Yellowhammer Fund, an Alabama-based group that helps low-income women cover the costs of abortion and travel, said it will stop its operations for two weeks due to a lack of clarity in state law.
“This is a temporary break and we’ll find out how we can legally get you money and resources and how it looks,” said Kelsea McLain, director of access to health at Yellowhammer.
Laura Goodhue, executive director of the Florida Alliance of Planned Parenthood Affiliates, said staff at her clinics have seen women driving from Texas without stopping or making an appointment. He said women who have spent 15 weeks have been asked to leave their information and promised a call if a judge signs the order temporarily blocking the restriction.
Still, there is concern that the order will only be temporary and that the law will come into force again later, creating further confusion.
“It’s terrible for patients,” he said. “We are very nervous about what will happen.”
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Izaguirre reported from Tallahassee, Florida, and Groves from Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Dylan Lovan, AP writer, in Louisville, Kentucky; Adriana Gomez Licon in Miami; and Kim Chandler in Montgomery, Alabama, contributed to this report.