A US appeals court on Monday delayed an appeal to a Texas law banning most abortions in the state, widely seen as a “defeat for abortion clinics,” Archyde.com reported.
The New Orleans Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals said the Texas Supreme Court must address enforcement issues related to the law before appealing to the Texas Clinics’ appeal.
The Republican-backed law bans abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy, a period when many women are still unaware of pregnancy, making the law one of the most restrictive abortion measures in the country.
Lawyers for the clinics urged the court to allow the case to continue before a federal judge who had previously blocked the ban, citing a December US Supreme Court order that allowed the lawsuit to continue even as the law went into effect.
“Any further delay would not be consistent with the way the Supreme Court has handled this case,” Mark Heron, an attorney for the Center for Reproductive Rights representing the clinics, told the Court of Appeals.
Heron did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton did not immediately respond to a similar request.
Circuit judges Edith Jones and Kyle Duncan, both Republican appointees, voted to refer the case to the Texas Supreme Court.
They asked the state court to consider whether the Texas attorney general, the state medical board and other licensing officials could take action to enforce the law if it was violated.
In a dissenting opinion, Democratic-appointed Circuit Judge Stephen Higginson said a referral of the case to the Texas Supreme Court would “contradict” the jurisdiction of the US Supreme Court, adding that “justice delay is a denial of justice.”
The Supreme Court is expected to rule by June on the constitutionality of a Mississippi law banning abortion in the 15th week of pregnancy.
Mississippi and other abortion opponents asked judges in that case to overturn a landmark 1973 decision that made abortion legal throughout the country.