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The Texas Supreme Court has temporarily halted a lower court’s decision that granted a pregnant woman the right to proceed with an abortion.
The Texas Supreme Court has issued a temporary stay on a district court’s decision that permitted Katie Cox, a 31-year-old woman, to undergo an abortion. Cox, who is 20 weeks pregnant, is carrying a fetus diagnosed with full trisomy, a condition associated with high risks of miscarriage, stillbirth, or infant death shortly after birth.
“The petition for mandamus and motion for temporary relief remain pending before the Court,” stated the Texas Supreme Court in response to the ongoing legal proceedings related to Katie Cox’s case.
Cox’s physicians have indicated that continuing her pregnancy would necessitate a cesarean section or induction, posing a risk of serious injury. Inducing labor could lead to a uterine rupture, especially considering Cox’s previous C-sections, and another cesarean section could further jeopardize her future fertility.
Molly Duane, senior staff attorney at the Center for Reproductive Rights, expressed concern that justice delayed could result in justice denied in this case. She emphasized the urgency of medical care, especially given that Katie Cox is already 20 weeks pregnant. Duane stated that individuals should not have to plead for healthcare in a court of law.
Texas prohibits all abortions from the moment of fertilization, and it enforces a “bounty law” that incentivizes private citizens to file lawsuits against those who aid or facilitate someone in obtaining an abortion.
“The Attorney General’s office in Texas argued to the court that future criminal and civil proceedings cannot restore the life that is lost if the plaintiffs or their agents proceed to perform and procure an abortion in violation of Texas law,” according to The Associated Press.
The Hill has contacted the Texas Attorney General’s office and the Center for Reproductive Rights for comments.
It is the second law of its kind to be declared unconstitutional.
A federal judge has issued a permanent injunction against a Texas bill that restricted “sexually oriented performances” and has been criticized for limiting public drag performances in the state.
U.S. District Judge David Hittner said the law is an “unconstitutional restriction on speech” and “violates the First Amendment as incorporated to Texas by the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution.”
A similar law in Tennessee, the first state to restrict drag performances in public, was also blocked and ruled unconstitutional.
The law was set to go into effect on Friday, Sept. 1, but a preliminary injunction halted its enforcement.
“LGBTQIA+ Texans, venue owners, performers, and our allies all came together to uphold free expression in our state — and we won,” the ACLU of Texas said in a social media post. “This work isn’t done but for now we celebrate. Long live Texas drag!”
A Drag Queen performs during a show at the Swan Dive nightclub on March 20, 2023 in Austin, Texas.
The Texas law doesn’t specifically mention drag shows, but Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said the bill would prohibit “sexualized performances and drag shows in the presence of a minor.”
The ACLU of Texas represented local LGBTQ groups, businesses and a performer in a lawsuit against state officials.
The “exhibition or representation, actual or simulated, of male or female genitals in a lewd state” as well as “the exhibition of sexual gesticulations using accessories or prosthetics that exaggerate male or female sexual characteristics” would have been restricted under the law.
Members of the Drag Show community listen in during a meeting at the Texas State Capitol on March 23, 2023 in Austin, Texas.
Performances would be restricted from public properties or in the presence of someone under the age of 18.
Under the law, businesses would have faced a $10,000 fine for hosting such a performance. Performers could be charged with a Class A misdemeanor, which is punishable by up to one year in jail and/or a fine of $4,000.
Critics of the bill said traveling Broadway plays, theater performances, professional cheerleading routines and drag shows would have been impacted.
Republican Governor Greg Abbott has sent a letter requesting that Texas education institutions take books out of classrooms that he has labeled “pornography,” mentioning in particular two memoirs featuring LGBTQ+ protagonists that contain explicit descriptions of sex.
Following a letter to the Texas Association of School Boards requesting it to ban porn and “inappropriate content” from public schools, Abbott sent a letter to the Texas Education Agency, Texas State Library and Archives Commission, and State Board of Education.
Florida first. Alabama follows. Legislators in Louisiana and Ohio are currently debating legislation that is similar to the Florida statute. A similar bill will be his top priority during the following session, according to Texas Governor Greg Abbott.
At least a dozen states across the country are proposing new legislation that, in some ways, will resemble Florida’s recent contentious bill, which some opponents have dubbed “Don’t Say Gay.”
The nation’s second-most populous state’s Republican governor, Greg Abbott of Texas, on Monday signed House Bill 25, a bill that would prohibit transgender girls from competing in interscholastic athletics. The bill will become operative on January 18, 2022.
Texas becomes the tenth state since March 2020 to do so via floor vote or executive order. In addition to Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Arkansas, West Virginia, South Dakota, Montana, and Idaho, the state now joins the group. In later verdicts, federal justices barred implementation in West Virginia and Idaho.
A lawsuit was launched on Tuesday against President Joe Biden’s administration over a Department of Agriculture school food program that forbids discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity by more than 20 Republican attorneys general, including Texas’ Ken Paxton.
In the lawsuit, Herbert Slatery, the attorney general of Tennessee, asserts that the federal government is trying to compel states and educational institutions to adhere to anti-discrimination standards that “misconstrue the law.”
When Roe v. Wade was overturned by the Supreme Court, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) seemed to agree with Justice Clarence Thomas’s concurring opinion that other precedents that might be deemed “demonstrably erroneous,” such as those affecting the LGBTQ community, could be reviewed by the court.
Thomas referred to Lawrence v. Texas as one of the cases that forbade states from outlawing intimate same-sex relationships. The historic 2003 decision invalidated a 1973 Texas law that made sodomy a crime. However, once Roe was overruled, Paxton declared he would support the state’s abolished sodomy ban if the Supreme Court followed Thomas’s advice and ultimately decided to reconsider Lawrence.
Abbott’s order came in response to Attorney General Ken Paxton’s non-binding legal judgment that gender-affirming care amounts to child abuse. Paxton is also engaged in the political battle of his life in Tuesday’s primary election.
Paxton’s ruling cited operations for body modification that, according to medical professionals, are infrequently, if ever, carried out on kids. But he also asserted that providing care that is widely regarded as gender-affirming, such as entirely reversible puberty blockers, would amount to child cruelty. According to specialists, the gender-affirming model of care spends more time focused on social transition for children than it does on medical care.
The Governor further urged “licensed professionals” and “members of the general public” to notify state authorities if it looked that the parents of trans youngsters had received gender-affirming care. The letter was written the day after Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton issued a statement in which he claimed that certain aspects of treatment that is gender affirming are abusive to children.
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