Dec. 16 (UPI) — The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday announced it was formally sending the highly publicized case over Texas’ six-week abortion ban, back to a federal appeals court.
Justice Neil Gorsuch signed the order, saying the appeals court should be responsible for handling the case, rejecting an argument made by doctors and abortion providers to send it back to a trial judge. That judge had originally ruled that the law was unconstitutional.
The case now heads to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The conservative-leaning court has supported the law on more than one occasion.
It is likely that abortion providers in Texas will continue to not perform the procedure until all legal challenges have been resolved.
The Texas law relies on private citizens, allowing them to sue anyone who provides or helps provide an abortion once the fetus shows a heartbeat, typically around the six-week mark.
One avenue for the appeals court would be to send the case to the Texas Supreme Court, leaving it to resolve questions over the enforcement authority of the licensing officials.
