Texas clinics halt abortions after state high court ruling

Bryan Peden, an anti-abortion supporter stands outside the Jackson Women's Health Organization clinic in Jackson, Miss., and waves his King James version of the Bible, as he cries out to women entering the medical facility to not have and abortion, Saturday, July 2, 2022.

Rogelio V. Solis / Rogelio V. Solis

AUSTIN, Texas — Clinics were shutting down abortion services in the nation’s second-largest state Saturday after the Texas Supreme Court blocked an order briefly allowing the procedure to resume in some cases, the latest in legal scrambles taking place across the U.S. following the reversal of Roe v. Wade.

The Friday night ruling stopped a three-day-old order by a Houston judge who said clinics could resume abortions up to six weeks into pregnancy. The following day, the American Civil Liberties Union said it doubted that any abortions were now being provided in a state of nearly 30 million people.

Amy Hagstrom Miller, president of Whole Woman’s Health, said the ruling forced an end to abortions in its four Texas clinics, and workers there were winding down abortion operations and having “heartbreaking conversations” with women whose appointments were canceled.