A Texas state judge on Friday temporarily blocked an anti-abortion group from enforcing Texas’s new 6-week abortion ban against Planned Parenthood, handing a narrow legal victory to abortion rights advocates.
Judge Maya Guerra Gamble’s (D) ruling does not invalidate the new law but rather halts Texas Right to Life and its associates from suing abortion providers and workers at Planned Parenthood clinics under the statute, S.B. 8, that took effect Wednesday.
“The Court finds that S.B. 8 creates a probable, irreparable, and imminent injury in the interim for which plaintiffs and their physicians, staff and patients throughout Texas have no adequate remedy at law if plaintiffs, their physicians, and staff are subjected to private enforcement lawsuits against them under S.B. 8,” Gamble wrote.
Planned Parenthood welcomed Friday’s ruling in the face of what it described as a “draconian law,” which prohibits abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected, around six weeks of pregnancy
“This restraining order offers protection to the brave health care providers and staff at Planned Parenthood health centers throughout Texas, who have continued to offer care as best they can within the law while facing surveillance, harassment, and threats from vigilantes eager to stop them,” Helene Krasnoff of Planned Parenthood Federation of America said in a statement.
“But make no mistake: this is not enough relief for Texas,” she continued. “Planned Parenthood will continue fighting for the millions of Texans affected by S.B. 8., doing everything we can under the law to restore Texans’ federal constitutional right to access abortion.”
The Texas law at issue was signed in May by Gov. Greg Abbott (R) and took effect Wednesday. Later that evening, the Supreme Court in a 5-4 vote turned down an emergency request from abortion providers to block it.
Story continues at: TexasAbortion
