LEGAL DECISIONS

Texas Asks Appeals Court to Reinstate Abortion Ban Temporarily Blocked by Judge

Abortion clinics have already begun administering abortions past six weeks.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has asked an appeals court to lift a stay of the state’s controversial near-total abortion ban as the state appeals the ruling, CNN reported Friday. The request comes two days after a federal court halted the Texas law, arguing that abortion was a constitutional right. In Friday’s request, Paxton asked the court to place an administrative hold on the judgment until it can review his request then place an emergency hold on it by Tuesday. He said Judge Robert Pitman’s Wednesday decision improperly relied on precedent and “grossly and irreparably interferes with Texas state-court operations.” ”It also places state courts and their employees under imminent threat of contempt based on the actions of third parties that they cannot control,” the state wrote.

Abortion clinics in the state have already begun conducting abortions past six weeks, the threshold set by the law, but they risk facing retroactive enforcement actions should the law be cleared in the future.