Texas to appeal ruling blocking abortion law

Texas will appeal a court order blocking the state’s restrictive abortion law after a federal judge called it an “offensive deprivation of such an important right.”

In public statements and court filings issued just hours after the ruling from U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman, Texas officials said they intended to take the case to an appeals court.

“We disagree with the Court’s decision and have already taken steps to immediately appeal it to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals,” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) said on Twitter Thursday morning. “The sanctity of human life is, and will always be, a top priority for me.”

Pitman, who was appointed by former President Obama, sided with the Biden administration late Wednesday in blocking the enforcement of the law, known as S.B. 8, saying that Texas lawmakers purposely designed a legislative scheme to bypass constitutional protections for women seeking abortions.

“From the moment S.B. 8 went into effect, women have been unlawfully prevented from exercising control over their lives in ways that are protected by the Constitution,” Pitman wrote. “That other courts may find a way to avoid this conclusion is theirs to decide; this Court will not sanction one more day of this offensive deprivation of such an important right.”