AUSTIN, Texas aEUR “After the Texas Supreme Court temporarily blocked an order allowing abortion to resume in certain cases in some cases in some cases, clinics in Texas were closing down their services on Saturday. This is the latest legal scramble taking place in the United States following the reversed Roe v. Wade decision.
Friday night’s ruling halted a Houston judge’s order that clinics could resume abortions after six weeks of pregnancy. The American Civil Liberties Union stated the following day that it was doubtful that abortions were being offered in a state with nearly 30 million residents.
Amy Hagstrom Miller, president and CEO of Whole Woman’s Health said that the ruling forced the end to abortions at its four Texas clinics. Workers were closing down abortion operations and having heartbreaking conversations with women whose appointments had been canceled.
Hagstrom Miller released a statement saying that she wished to be there for her and the people she has dedicated her life to serving with the amazing abortion care they provide. Many will not have this right for months or even years.
The restraining orders were placed Tuesday by multiple Texas Planned Parenthood affiliates. However, they had not yet resumed abortion services in Texas.
The issue was a 1925 criminal law, long forgotten, that penalizes individuals who perform abortions. After 1973, abortion was made a constitutional right in the United States. Clinics argued that it was invalid. However, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of Roe June 24, leaving abortion policy up to states.
“Pro-life victory! … The litigation continues, but I’ll continue to win for Texas’s unborn children,” stated Attorney General Ken Paxton (a Republican), who asked the state Supreme Court in an intervention.
Separately, Texas has a 2021 bill that is designed to ban abortion in the case Roe were repealed. It will take effect in the coming weeks.
Julia Kaye, of the ACLU said that extreme politicians are trying to force Texans into childbirth and pregnancy against their will.
Patients and providers across the country are struggling to navigate the changing legal landscape surrounding abortion access and laws.
A law in Florida banning abortions after 15-weeks was put into effect Friday. This came after a judge declared it a violation to the state constitution. He said that he would temporarily block it next week. Because Florida allows abortions in greater numbers than other states, the ban could have wider implications in the South.
Even if women are not allowed to have an abortion in a state other than the one they live in, there may be less options for them to terminate their pregnancies. The possibility of prosecution could follow them.
Planned Parenthood of Montana has stopped offering medication abortions to patients in states that ban them this week.
Planned Parenthood North Central States offers the procedure in Minnesota and Iowa. Patients are told to take both the pills while they are in a state that allows abortion.
Since 2000, pills have been the most popular method of ending a pregnancy. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved mifepristone as the main medication used for medical abortions. It is combined with misoprostol (a drug that causes cramping and empties the womb), to form the abortion pill.
Google, which is the dominant search engine on the internet and also powers Android, announced that it will automatically delete information about users who visit abortion centers or other locations that could cause legal problems.
Google also mentioned counseling centers, fertility centres, addiction treatment facilities and weight loss clinics as destinations that will be removed from the location histories. Google will now protect users’ location histories by allowing them to edit it. Users are already able to do this manually.
Jen Fitzpatrick (a senior vice president at Google), wrote that Google is committed to providing strong privacy protections for users of its products. She also stated in a blog post, “We’re committed delivering robust privacy protections to people who use our product, and we will continue looking for new ways to strengthen these protections.”
