Texas renews court effort to ban abortion procedure

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Texas officials asked a federal appeals court’s permission Tuesday to enforce a ban on a commonly used second-trimester abortion procedure — before the court rules on its constitutionality.

A three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans heard arguments on the law in November 2018. But the panel had yet to rule as of Tuesday. Last week, the same panel declined a Texas motion to allow enforcement of the law while it prepares its ruling. So, Texas officials on Tuesday asked the full 17-member court to consider the matter, essentially doing an end run around the panel.

The 2017 law uses the non-medical term “dismemberment abortion” to describe a procedure in which forceps and other instruments are used to remove the fetus from the womb, a process the Texas Legislature declared “brutal and inhumane.” Abortion rights groups say the procedure, used in second-trimester abortions, is known as dilation and evacuation, and that eliminating it forces women who did not or could not get an abortion in the first trimester, to choose less safe, less effective options.

A federal judge in Texas struck down the law in 2017, leading to the appeal before the 5th Circuit panel in New Orleans.

One reason the case has simmered at the 5th Circuit for so long is that the panel that originally heard the case nearly 22 months ago put it on hold pending a Supreme Court ruling in another abortion restriction case: a Louisiana law that required doctors who perform abortions to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals.

The Supreme Court ruled on that case in June — striking down the Louisiana law. It was an immediate victory for abortion rights supporters. However, foes of legal abortion have focused on an opinion in the case written by Chief Justice John Roberts.

Roberts had...