A federal judge on Wednesday blocked a new Texas law that would have banned a commonly used abortion method. Austin-based U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel extended indefinitely a temporary ban he previously issued before the law was set to take effect Sept. 1. Greg Abbott (R) signed in June banning a second-trimester abortion procedure known as dilation and evacuation. Texas is set to appeal, but federal courts in at least four other states already had blocked similar laws. The Texas law that Yeakel suspended uses the nonmedical term “dismemberment abortion” to describe a procedure in which forceps and other instruments are used to remove the fetus from the womb.

Source: Washington Post November 22, 2017 23:50 UTC