Texas passed a law in 2017 that outlaws dismemberment abortions, which are just as appalling as it sounds and are usually done in the second and third trimesters.
Alliance Defending Freedom attorney Elissa Graves says a lower-court decision allowing the procedure was appealed to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, where it overturned the earlier decision that struck down the state law.
According to The Associated Press, a three-judge panel of the 5th Circuit blocked the law last year but the state governor was granted a re-hearing in front of the full court. A majority of the court sided with Texas.
“And they said that the district court had relied on bad law, bad facts, and bad math,” she tells American Family News. “The 5th Circuit, in a wonderful decision, said it is constitutional for Texas to prohibit dismemberment abortions.”
Regarding the court fights, Joe Pojman of Texas Alliance for Life tells American Family News he sat in the courtroom four years ago during arguments over the new law.
"It was exasperating," he says, "hearing doctors from many parts of the state describe this method of abortion with a straight face."
The leader of a pro-abortion group complained to the AP that it is “galling that a federal court would uphold a law that so clearly defies decades of Supreme Court precedent.”
According to Graves, however, everyone should be offended by the procedure itself.
“It should offend people who are pro-abortion to be forced to dismember a child in the mother's womb,” she tells American Family News. “It's inhumane and it really has no place in American society.”
This story has been updated with comments from Joe Pojman of Texas Alliance for Life.
