A state judge has granted a temporary restraining order against an anti-abortion group, blocking it from suing abortion providers employed by Planned Parenthood, who are now at risk of facing legal action under a new law passed earlier this week.
Under Senate Bill 8, Planned Parenthood, its staff and its patients face “probable, irreparable, and imminent injury” if they can be sued by the nonprofit group Texas Right to Life, its legislative director and 100 other individuals, state District Judge Maya Guerra Gamble ruled on Friday.
The three-page order does not however, make mention of any other groups or individuals.
Planned Parenthood spokeswoman Helene Krasnoff praised the order and dubbed it a small victory amid the ongoing drama surrounding the new legislation.
She said Gamble’s order “offers protection to the brave health care providers and staff at Planned Parenthood health centers throughout Texas, who have continued to offer care as best they can within the law while facing surveillance, harassment, and threats from vigilantes eager to stop them,”
Texas’ new abortion law, one of the harshest and most restrictive in the nation, allows any person to sue anyone connected to an abortion in which cardiac activity was detected in the embryo — as early as six weeks into a pregnancy, which is before most women even realize they are pregnant.
Planned Parenthood in a petition filed Thursday, said about 85% to 90% of people who obtain abortions in Texas are at least six weeks into pregnancy.
With News Wire Services
