Texas allows abortions to resume during coronavirus despite lengthy court fight to ban procedure

The changes took effect at midnight Tuesday and lawyers for the clinics said that by Wednesday morning, all clinics had complied with the order and were starting to perform abortions again

In a surprise move on Wednesday night, the authorities in Texas abandoned their fight to include abortion in a list of medical procedures that must be delayed during the coronavirus pandemic.

During the weeks of legal wrangling that went all of the way to the Supreme Court, Texas had argued that abortion was like any other elective surgery, and should be delayed to preserve the personal protective equipment needed by medical workers exposed to the virus.

Lawyers for abortion clinics said the state was using the pandemic to advance its own political agenda and took the state to court.

Abortion access in Texas swung wildly for a month, with clinics cancelling dozens of appointments and rescheduling them days later, as the case bounced through the court system. Texas residents scrambled, with some travelling long distances to clinics in nearby states like Kansas and Colorado.

At least six other states — Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Ohio, Oklahoma and Tennessee — have tried similar abortion restrictions, often through emergency orders by their governors.

But hospitals around the country have been under financial strain after postponing often lucrative elective surgical procedures to make way for coronavirus patients, and last week, Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas eased the restrictions on some surgical procedures. Operations can now be performed in facilities that certify in writing that they will reserve at least 25 per cent of their capacity for coronavirus patients and that they will not request personal protective equipment from any public source.

The changes took effect at midnight Tuesday and lawyers for the clinics said that by Wednesday morning, all clinics had complied with the order and were starting to perform abortions again.

Still, the lawyers were wary, pointing out that the state had a case before the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals, in which it had largely prevailed. As late as Monday, the court had sided with the state, saying that even medication abortion, which involves taking two pills early in pregnancy, could be prohibited.

Abortion rallies, both for and against reproductive rights, have taken place across the US since some states announced the procedure would be made illegal in 2019 (Getty)

“Finally, women in Texas can get the time-sensitive abortion care that they are constitutionally guaranteed,” said Nancy Northup, president and chief executive of the Centre for Reproductive Rights, which represents some of the clinics. “Women never should have had to go to court to get essential health care.”

Dyana Limon-Mercado, the executive director of Planned Parenthood Texas Votes, an advocacy group in Texas, said, “The past month has been an unthinkable nightmare for Texans who have been forced to travel out of state just to access essential health care.”

On Wednesday afternoon, a spokeswoman for state Attorney General Ken Paxton did not say whether abortion would be included in the new relaxing of the rules. But hours later, a court filing in a federal court in Texas provided the answer.

In a 23-page filing, the attorney general’s office made clear that there was “no legal basis” for the clinics to seek relief because they had clearly met the criteria to resume activity under the governor’s new order.

“Every plaintiff clinic has certified to HHSC that it meets the requirements of the new exception,” the state said in the court document, referring to the Texas Health and Human Services Commission.

New York Times