A judge for the US District Court for the Western District of Texas [official website] on Thursday temporarily blocked [order, PDF] new Texas regulations [text, PDF] that would require the burial or cremation of aborted fetal remains. The new regulations, approved last week by the Texas Department of State Health Services [official website], were set to take effect December 19 but were challenged [JURIST report] earlier this week by the Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR) [advocacy website], which claimed that they placed an undue burden on women seeking abortions. Judge Sam Sparks blocked enforcement of the regulations until at least January 6 and ordered a hearing for January 3.

The US Supreme Court struck down [JURIST report] a controversial Texas abortion law in June. The court ruled [opinion, PDF] 5-3 in Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt [SCOTUSblog materials] that HB2 [text], which imposed certain requirements on abortion clinics and doctors, created an undue burden on access to abortion, and was therefore unconstitutional.