U.S. appeals court lets Texas resume ban on most abortions

The same appeals court allowed the law to take effect in September, and stepped in this time only hours after Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's office urged them to act

A federal appeals court on the night of October 8 quickly allowed Texas to resume banning most abortions, just one day after clinics across the State began rushing to serve patients again for the first time since early September.

Abortion providers in Texas had been bracing for the 5th U.S. Court of Appeals to act fast, even as they booked new appointments and reopened their doors during a brief reprieve from the law known as Senate Bill 8, which bans abortions once cardiac activity is detected, usually around six weeks.

On October 6, U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman, an appointee of President Barack Obama, the that he called an “offensive deprivation” of the constitutional right to an abortion. But in a one-page order, the New Orleans-based appeals court temporarily set aside Judge Pitman's ruling for now while it considers the State's appeal.