Jan. 25 (UPI) — The U.S. Supreme Court issued an order Monday vacating a lower court order upholding a Texas abortion ban.
At issue was Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s order in March to place a ban on abortions in the state to preserve hospital resources amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans upheld the ban, overturning the decision of a lower court that found the order was too broad and lifted the ban. Planned Parenthood petitioned the Supreme Court to review the case.
“The judgment is vacated, and the case is remanded to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit with instructions to dismiss the case as moot,” the Supreme Court said in its order Monday.
The Texas abortion ban was “a transparent attempt to chip away at access to reproductive healthcare by exploiting a public health crisis,” and it was “important we took this procedural step to make sure bad case law was wiped from the books,” Planned Parenthood, the Center for Reproductive Rights and the Lawyering Project said in a statement to NBC News.
The Supreme Court order follows Abbott tweeting a day earlier that Texas would fully end taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood by Feb. 3.
“Innocent lives will be saved,” Abbott added in the tweet with a link to Corridor News article citing the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals decision siding with his order to ban abortions amid the pandemic.
