|
 Wednesday's decision marks the first time a U.S. federal court has
upheld a prohibition on the standard abortion method used after 15
weeks of pregnancy - dilation and evacuation, or D&E - though some
other states have acted to outlaw it.
Last October, a three-judge panel of the 5th Circuit had sided with
abortion rights activists in affirming a 2017 lower-court opinion
that struck down the Texas law as unconstitutional and temporarily
barred its enforcement.
The panel's 2-1 ruling held that the statute "unduly burdens a
woman's constitutionally protected right" to terminate her own
pregnancy before the fetus is considered viable.
But the full 17-member 5th Circuit, acting on an appeal from Texas,
reheard the case in January and issued its "en banc" decision on
Wednesday vacating that decision, thus putting the
Republican-enacted abortion restriction into effect.
Physicians found to have violated the measure would face a prison
term of up to two years.
Nine judges on the New Orleans-based appeals court joined in ruling
in favor of the Texas statute, with five judges dissenting and three
recused from the case.
EXTRA PROCEDURE IMPOSED
The newly re-instated law forbids D&E abortions unless the physician
first performs a separate, additional procedure in the woman's body
to bring about the demise of the fetus.
That requirement, appellate Judge James Dennis wrote in his dissent,
would force women to unnecessarily undergo "painful, invasive,
expensive, and in some cases experimental additional treatments"
that pose "significantly elevated risks to the women's health and
well-being."
But a majority of the court disagreed, finding that plaintiffs
failed to show the measure "imposes an undue burden on a large
fraction of women in the relevant circumstances."
The Texas law refers to the D&E procedure, involving the use of
suction and forceps to bring fetal tissue through the woman's
cervix, as a "dismemberment abortion," a non-medical term eschewed
by doctors.
The law's advocates say its restrictions promote the state's
interest in preventing fetal pain. But Dennis, writing for the 2-1
majority of the appellate panel last year, said, "We find little
merit in this argument.
[to top of second column] |
 As he said then, major medical
bodies, such as the American College of
Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the American
Medical Association, have concluded that fetal
pain is impossible before 24 weeks of gestation
- well beyond the point when abortions are
almost never performed.
Wednesday's ruling "has allowed extremist
politicians to interfere in private healthcare
decisions that should stay between patients and
their physicians," Dr. Bhavik Kumar, an abortion
provider at the Planned Parenthood Center for
Choice in Houston, a plaintiff in the case, said
in a statement. The ruling comes
three months after Governor Greg Abbott signed into law a separate
bill banning abortions outright as early as six weeks into
gestation, before many women realize they are pregnant. Several
groups have filed suit to block that measure before it takes effect
on Sept. 1.
Although D&Es are the safest abortion method after about 15 weeks of
pregnancy - about two weeks into the second trimester - nearly 90%
of all abortions happen in the first trimester, says the Guttmacher
Institute research group that supports abortion rights.
Similar D&E abortion bans in other states, including Alabama,
Arkansas, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana and Oklahoma, have
been struck down by the courts, according to the Center for
Reproductive Rights.
Texas, the most populous Republican-dominated state, has been at the
forefront of efforts around the country to restrict abortion.
Many of those measures are part of a legal strategy by conservatives
to prompt the U.S. Supreme Court to roll back its landmark 1973
decision, known as Roe v. Wade, that guarantees a woman's right to
terminate her pregnancy before viability of the fetus, at around 24
to 28 weeks of gestation.
Whole Woman's Health, the lead plaintiff challenging the D&E ban,
also led a legal fight in 2016 that ended in the Supreme Court's
striking down a Texas abortion law that had shuttered nearly half
the state's clinics by imposing strict regulations on doctors and
facilities.
(Reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Michael Perry
and Clarence Fernandez)
[© 2021 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2021 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content |
