Fifth Circuit upholds Texas abortion ban paving way for possible Supreme Court hearing

The issue of abortion may once again come before the U.S. Supreme Court after the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a 2017 Texas law outlawing a second trimester procedure.

The Texas Dismemberment Abortion Ban, which passed with bipartisan support, outlaws the method of D&E, dilation and evacuation, from being performed in the second trimester statewide.  

Nine judges on the New Orleans-based appeals court ruled in favor of the Texas statute, five against, and three recused themselves. They overruled their own court's 3-judge panel, which last October upheld a lower district court's ruling blocking the law from going into effect. 

In January, in an unusual move, the full 17-member court threw out the panel's decision and agreed to rehear the case before the full court. Eight months later, in an en banc review, it reversed the decisions of the panel and the lower court in their entirety.