|
 Travis County District Judge Maya Guerra Gamble granted Planned
Parenthood a temporary restraining order against the anti-abortion
group, Texas Right to Life, blocking the group and its allies from
using an unusual mechanism of the Texas law that enables private
citizens to sue anyone who provides or "aids or abets" an abortion
after six weeks.
The law https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-supreme-court-declines-block-texas-abortion-ban-2021-09-02
took effect early on Wednesday in Texas after the U.S. Supreme Court
did not act on abortion rights groups' request to block it. That
suggests Supreme Court justices are closer than ever to overturning
Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision under which abortion rights have been
protected.
Guerra Gamble said in her three-page written order that allowing the
so-called private enforcement mechanism to go forward while Planned
Parenthood took further legal action would cause "probable,
irreparable and imminent injury" that could not be cured later.
The unusual enforcement mechanism gives the civil enforcement power
to any party in or out of Texas who chooses to sue, while preventing
government officials from enforcing the ban.
[to top of second column] |
 The Travis County restraining
order does not bar others from using the law
against Planned Parenthood or other abortion
providers in Texas. A hearing on a possible
further injunction was set for Sept. 13.
Helene Krasnoff, Planned Parenthood Federation
of America's vice president for public policy
litigation and law, expressed relief "that the
Travis County district court has acted quickly
to grant this restraining order against Texas
Right to Life and anyone working with them as
deputized enforcers of this draconian law."
"But make no mistake: this is not enough relief
for Texas," she said.
Elizabeth Graham, a Texas Right to Life vice
president, said in a statement that her group
"will never back down from protecting pregnant
women and preborn children from abortion.”
(Reporting by Dan Whitcomb in Los Angeles;
Editing by Donna Bryson and William Mallard)
[© 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 This material may not be published,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 |
