Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas drops appeal in Lubbock abortion ban lawsuit
Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas is no longer pursuing its appeal on a U.S. district court's decision dismissing its lawsuit against the city of Lubbock over the "Sanctuary City for the Unborn" ordinance, which bans abortions in the city limits.
The women's healthcare provider on Thursday filed a motion to dismiss the appeal in the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. The motion was filed ahead of a Feb. 2 deadline for briefs to be submitted to the court.
The appeal stems from a ruling by U.S. District Court Judge James Wesley Hendrix in June, dismissing Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas' lawsuit saying his court didn't have jurisdiction over the ordinance. He said any ruling he would make in Planned Parenthood's favor would not be legally binding on the city.
"Because the ability to remedy a plaintiff’s injury through a favorable decision is a prerequisite to a plaintiff’s standing to sue—an ability absent here—the Court dismisses the case for lack of jurisdiction," Hendrix wrote in his opinion.
Planned Parenthood sued the city two weeks after Lubbock voters approved the ordinance in the May 1 municipal election.
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The ordinance opens to civil litigation anyone who provides abortions in Lubbock. Individuals who could bring lawsuits against abortion providers include relatives of aborted fetuses, as well as any citizen of Texas.
The women's health care provider was asking the court to declare the ordinance unconstitutional and invalid, arguing that the ordinance places an undue burden on a woman's right to an abortion.
Hendrix also ruled that he needed to abstain from the case because there were issues in the lawsuit that needed to be settled in state court first. He dismissed the case without prejudice to allow the remaining federal issues to be determined later in federal court.
Three months after Hendrix's decision, Gov. Greg Abbott signed into law Senate Bill 8, also known as the Texas Heartbeat Act, which bans abortions once a fetal heartbeat is detected.
Ken Lambrecht, President and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas, said in a statement that the decision to drop the appeal doesn't end the group's fight against Lubbock's ordinance, which he described as unconstitutional, adding his organization is considering "all legal options."
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He said the Lubbock health center will remain open to provide health care services including cancer screenings, birth control, STI testing and treatment.
"We know people in Lubbock and throughout Texas face insurmountable barriers to accessing abortion due to S.B. 8, the state’s near-total abortion ban, which has been in effect for nearly five months now," he said. "But it is clear we cannot depend on the courts to protect our constitutional rights, as our challenge to S.B. 8 continues to languish with no end in sight and abortion access hangs by a thread across the country.”
State Sen. Charles Perry, who championed the Lubbock ordinance, described the dismissal as a victory.
“With the Texas Heartbeat Act taking effect last September, and with Lubbock having outlawed abortion within city limits, the state of Texas is leading the way on protecting the unborn despite the continued existence of Roe v. Wade," he said in a statement Friday. "Texas and Lubbock have shown how states and cities can ban or restrict abortion while immunizing their laws from pre-enforcement judicial review. I encourage other cities in Texas and throughout the United States to adopt similar ordinances.”
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Planned Parenthood drops appeal in Lubbock abortion ban lawsuit
