NPR

Legal Fight Heats Up In Texas Over Ban On Abortions Amid Coronavirus

The state banned all elective medical procedures, including abortions, amid the outbreak. Abortion-rights activists say Texas is "exploiting this crisis to ... ban abortion in the U.S."

Governors across the country are banning elective surgery as a means of halting the spread of the coronavirus. But in a handful of states that ban is being extended to include a ban on all abortions.

So far the courts have intervened to keep most clinics open. The outlier is Texas, where the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit this week upheld the governor's abortion ban.

Four years ago, Texas was also the focus of a fierce legal fight that ultimately led to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in which the justices a Texas law purportedly aimed at protecting women's health. The court ruled the law was medically unnecessary and

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