5th Circuit Court Upholds Texas Law Banning Abortion Procedure Used In 2nd Trimester Pregnancies

CBS Dallas/Fort Worth

August 19, 2021

A Texas law outlawing an abortion method commonly used to end second-trimester pregnancies was upheld on August 18 in New Orleans by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.

The 2017 law in question has never been enforced. It seeks to prohibit the use of forceps to remove a fetus from the womb — what supporters of the law call a “dismemberment abortion” — without first using an injected drug or a suction procedure to ensure the fetus is dead.

Abortion rights advocates argued that the law, known as SB8 in court records, effectively outlaws what is often the safest method of abortion for women in the second trimester of pregnancy — a procedure medically known as dilation and evacuation. They also argued that fetuses cannot feel pain during the gestation period affected by the law, and that one alternative outlined by the state, the use of suction to remove a fetus, also results in dismemberment.

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