SW News: Pro-life advocates in the US state of Texas are exulting over the life-defending judgment by the state Supreme Court. The Texas Supreme Court on Friday, July 1, ordered the enforcement of the 1925 law banning abortion after a lower court temporarily halted it from coming into effect. The top court permitted the law to come into force as Roe v Wade has been overturned.

The Friday verdict overrules a Harris County judge’s ruling that permitted abortion through six weeks to resume temporarily. It was on Tuesday that the 1925 law was stopped from going into effect. As per the law, terminating a pregnancy by any method is punishable with imprisonment from two to 10 years. However, the ruling on Friday does not allow criminal charges against abortion providers. However, it permits penalizing those who assist in the procurement of abortion with fines and lawsuits.

Welcoming the pro-life move, Jonathan Covey, policy director for Texas Values, a religious freedom organization, stated, “We are grateful the Texas Supreme Court blocked this temporary restraining order that clinics were using as an excuse to kill pre-born babies. No matter how hard abortionists try to perpetrate murder, we know that life is a human right.” However, many pro-abortion advocates have decried the life-defending move.

The 1925 abortion law remained on the books since 1973 after the enforcement of Roe v Wade, legalizing abortion across the US. Following the epoch-making reversal of Roe v Wade by the US Supreme Court on June 24, Harris County judge Christine Weems temporarily blocked the abortion ban law after the abortion clinics sued for a stay.

Texas is among the 13 states that have ‘trigger laws’ to ban abortion after the reversal of Roe v Wade. It signed a trigger law in 2021, punishing any individual who “knowingly performs, induces, or attempts an abortion” soon after fertilization. The law, which will take effect after 30 days post-Roe v Wade reversal, only provides an exception if the mother’s health is at risk. Under the trigger law, women who seek abortion will not be punished.