Maria Caspani, Julia Harte

(Reuters) – Texas’ nearly-total abortion ban was blocked by a federal court on Wednesday. However, at least one state provider said that it would resume services for pregnant women who want to end their pregnancies after the law’s six-week limit.

Amy Hagstrom Miller is the chief executive officer of Whole Woman’s Health. She explained to reporters that the Texas provider had placed patients on a waitinglist since Sept. 1 when the law was in effect.

Hagstrom Miller told reporters that these individuals were able “to come in” and provided abortion care to them today.

She couldn’t tell us which clinics have resumed service or how many abortions they have performed.

U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman in Austin on Wednesday blocked https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-judge-blocks-enforcement-near-total-abortion-ban-texas-2021-10-07 the state from enforcing the law while litigation over its legality continues. Texas appealed immediately to the conservative Fifth Circuit Appeals Court, claiming that the Republican-backed law allows private citizens to enforce this ban.

The law has become a flashpoint in a national battle over abortion rights as Republican lawmakers in other states try to pass similar legislation https://www.reuters.com/world/us/judges-ruling-texas-abortion-ban-warning-copycats-now-2021-10-07. The U.S. Supreme Court is set to hear the Mississippi case challenging Roe v. Wade. This landmark 1973 decision established nationwide abortion access rights.

David Cohen, Drexel University’s law professor, stated that Texas clinics will find themselves in a very precarious situation if they resume abortion services after the law has been blocked. The law contains a clause that allows providers to sue if it is reinstated after being struck down.

Cohen claimed that even if Pitman s injunction were to be upheld by Supreme Court appeal, the Supreme Court could dissolve it by an upcoming decision overturning Roe.v. Wade. This decision is what prompted Pitman’s ruling.

Hagstrom Miller claimed that many physicians were concerned by the retroactive clause.

Any abortion that you give, regardless of whether you have an injunction or not, can be considered criminal one year, six months, and a whole lot more. You may be held responsible for all those. “It’s quite frightening to think about it,” she stated.

Advocates for abortion said they would sue those who resume services if Pitman’s decision is overturned on appeal.

John Seago is the legislative director at Texas Right to Life. He stated, “As the case develops,” that there might be an opportunity to sue or to enforce the law in the future.

Others in Texas acknowledged that they were concerned about the promise of the state to appeal its injunction to an appeals court with conservative leanings.

“Given the state’s appeal, our health centers may not have the days or even weeks it could take to navigate new patients through Texas’s onerous abortion restrictions,” the leaders of Planned Parenthood South Texas, Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast and Planned Parenthood Greater Texas said in a joint statement.

Molly Duane of the Center for Reproductive Rights in Texas, where she represents several Texas clinics, stated that abortion providers are currently facing a challenging situation.

She stated that “there are many independent providers in the state who are trying to reopen all services, and they are wary that the Fifth Circuit might remove this injunction at anytime.”