Texas Supreme Court Allows Century-Old Abortion Ban to Take Effect
The Texas Supreme Court late Friday allowed a nearly century-old abortion ban to take effect, blocking a lower court order that had temporarily allowed the state’s clinics to continue offering the procedure without the threat of legal retribution and financial penalties.
As the Texas Tribune reports, the 1925 law “made performing an abortion, by any method, punishable by two to 10 years in prison.” The Texas Supreme Court’s order Friday, which rolled back an injunction secured just days earlier by the ACLU, only allows for civil enforcement of the law as litigation continues. A hearing in the case is scheduled for July 12.
“The Texas Supreme Court blocked our injunction, allowing a total abortion ban originally passed in 1925 to be enforced,” the ACLU said late Friday. “This law has already forced countless people to carry pregnancies against their will. Abortion is our right—no matter what the courts say.”
In an advisory released after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade late last month, Texas’ Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton noted that the 1925 law was never reversed by the state’s legislature, even after the 1973 Roe decision rendered it unconstitutional.
“Under these pre-Roe statutes, abortion providers could be criminally liable for providing abortions,” wrote Paxton, who appealed to the Texas Supreme Court to revoke the Harris County judge’s order that blocked the 1925 law.
On Twitter, Paxton celebrated the Texas Supreme Court’s move Friday and declared that “our state’s pre-Roe statutes banning abortion in Texas are 100% good law.”
The 1925 ban is just one of several anti-abortion laws on the books in Texas.
In September, a law that bans abortions after six weeks of pregnancy and deputizes private citizens to enforce it took effect. And in the coming weeks, the state’s “trigger ban”—which outlaws abortion from the moment of fertilization—is set to become active thanks to the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.
The Supreme Court’s Dobbs ruling unleashed a flurry of legal activity as Republican-led states—often haphazardly—rushed to implement trigger bans and other dormant anti-abortion laws.
Originally published at Commondreams.org, written by Jake Johnson.
Have Your Say!
Have you been affected by the issues raised in this story? Please share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@soundvision.com.
Please include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a Muslim Network TV’s representative. You can also get in touch in the following ways:
Tweet: @MuslimNetworkTV
We must take charge of our narrative. Research indicates that 92% of their Muslim coverage is negative. Help us change that.
