Appeals court upholds Texas law banning common second-trimester abortion method

A Texas law outlawing an abortion method commonly used to end second-trimester pregnancies was upheld Wednesday by a federal appeals court in New Orleans. Abortion rights advocates argued that the law 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.

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 opposed the law, arguing 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.