The Supreme Court issued an order on Thursday, January 21, 2022, blocking litigation against Texas’ six-week abortion ban while the state’s highest court weighs a procedural question related to the measure’s enforcement. This has allowed the ban to stay in effect indefinitely.

“With today’s ruling, the lawsuit will continue in the appropriate venue, and the Texas Heartbeat Act will continue to save preborn lives,” Texas Right to Life, a leading antiabortion group in the state, wrote in a statement on its website.

The court’s order was unsigned and provided no explanation. The three liberal justices dissented, arguing that Thursday’s order undermined the court’s December decision permitting abortion providers to proceed in limited fashion with their lawsuit against the Texas law. “This case is a disaster for the rule of law and a grave disservice to women in Texas, who have a right to control their own bodies,” Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in dissent, joined by Justices Stephen Breyer and Elena Kagan.

The Texas law, known as SB 8, bans nearly all abortions after the sixth week of pregnancy. This restriction is at odds with a current Supreme Court precedent allowing women to obtain abortions prior to fetal viability, which occurs at about 24 weeks.

When states enact straightforward abortion bans, providers can obtain an injunction by suing officials responsible for enforcement. An injunction is an authoritative writing or order. Texas lawmakers sought to avoid such challenges by leaving enforcement up to private parties, awarding them at least $10,000 for filing civil lawsuits against those who provide abortions or assist women in obtaining them.

In its December decision, the Supreme Court blocked a full-scale challenge to SB 8 by a 5-4 vote. They found that the court clerks who processed SB 8 lawsuits weren’t appropriate defendants. But in an 8-1 vote the court found some licensing officials, such as the head of the state medical board, played a role in SB 8’s enforcement and can therefore be sued.

Justice Neil Gorsuch expedited the return of the case in the appeals court at the providers’ request. The Fifth Circuit, rather than sending the case back to the federal district court for proceedings against the licensing officials, scheduled an argument on Texas’ motion to refer to the state Supreme Court on whether the state licensing officials were actually involved in SB 8’s enforcement.

Providers returned to the Supreme Court on January 3 asking the justices to order the Fifth Circuit to transfer the case back to the district court immediately. The clinics said the Fifth Circuit was entertaining unnecessary legal questions which had been resolved by the Supreme Court, delaying their opportunity to restore abortion rights in Texas.

The U.S. Supreme Court took no action before the Fifth Circuit’s January 7 hearing, with the appeals court later granting Texas’ request to send the issue to the state Supreme Court. This leaves SB 8 in effect until the Texas Supreme Court responds to the Fifth Circuit.

At a January 7 hearing one Fifth Circuit judge suggested that delay could be for the best. The U.S. Supreme Court is considering whether to reduce or eliminate the constitutional right to end unwanted pregnancies that it recognized in 1973 in Roe v. Wade.