Federal Judge Blocks Texas Abortion Ban, Blasts 'Offensive Deprivation of Such an Important Right'

A federal judge has temporarily blocked Texas’s near-total ban on abortions, granting the Justice Department’s emergency request to halt the law while courts consider its legality. In his ruling, Judge Robert Pitman slammed the Texas ban's unconstitutionality, writing, "This Court will not sanction one more day of this offensive deprivation of such an important right."

"Judge Robert Pitman ruled and said what advocates in Texas and clinics operators in Texas have been saying all along … a near-total ban on abortion in the state of Texas is flagrantly unconstitutional," says Amy Littlefield, abortion access correspondent for The Nation. Abortion clinics in the state are already moving quickly to resume abortions.