Travis County District Judge Jessica Mangrum issued a temporary injunctive order Friday, blocking a Texas abortion ban from being applied to people with pregnancy complications. However, mere hours later the Texas state attorney general’s office appealed the order to the Texas State Supreme Court, putting the ban fully back into place until the State Supreme Court rules on the order.
The injunctive order states:
Until all issues in this lawsuit are finally and fully determined, a temporary injunction is entered immediately enjoining Defendants, their agents, servants, employees, attorneys, and all persons in active concert and participation with Defendants from enforcing Texas’s abortion bans in any manner that: (i) would prevent the Patient Plaintiffs and pregnant persons throughout Texas from receiving necessary abortion care in connection with an emergent medical condition; (ii) would subject the Physician Plaintiffs and others in Texas to liability for providing necessary abortion care in connection with an emergent medical condition; and (iii) 6 would be inconsistent with the rights of pregnant persons and physicians in Texas under Article I, §§ 3, 3a, and/or 19 of the Texas Constitution…
The state attorney general’s office responded to the order by filing a Notice of Accelerated Interlocutory Appeal directly to the Texas Supreme Court. This filing automatically stayed the injunctive order until the state supreme court rules. In the filing, Assistant Attorney General John Stone wrote on behalf of the state, “Pursuant to Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 51.014(b), all further proceedings in this court are stayed pending resolution of Defendants’ appeal.”
Lead plaintiff in the case Amanda Zurawski celebrated the original injunctive order, stating, “I have a sense of relief, a sense of hope, and a weight has been lifted.” The office of the Texas Attorney General (OAG) responded to the ruling and appeal, writing, “The OAG will continue to enforce the laws duly enacted by the Texas Legislature and uphold the values of the people of Texas by doing everything in its power to protect mothers and babies.”
Zurawski and several other plaintiffs, who were pregnant at the time of filing, sued the state of Texas to block the state’s abortion ban in March. Texas is one of many states that have enacted some type of abortion ban since the Supreme Court overruled Roe v. Wade with Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. Research released by Care Post-Roe has shown that doctors in states with strict abortion bans are unable to meet patients needs, leading to negative health outcomes for pregnant women.
