Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton this week asked the U.S. District Court in Austin to dismiss lawsuits challenging the state's abortion laws.
Abortion advocates are not only challenging recent laws, but nearly every abortion-related law on the Texas books dating back 30 years.
“The requirement that a physician has tell their patient their name is being challenged. The sterilization requirements by the clinic are being challenged. Basic safety standards are being challenged,”says Emily Horne, senior legislative associate for Texas Right to Life.
Horne calls it a sloppy attempt at throwing everything at the wall to see if anything sticks and a waste of taxpayer money.
“We saw that when the judge was pressing the abortion attorneys for facts about the allegations they made, and they said 'we don't really have to prove facts here, but if we're allowed, please let us replead the case and tell us how we should to do it,' and that's not the judge's job,” she says.
Advocates claim the laws designed to shame and deter women seeking abortions while making it more difficult for health professionals to provide them.
No word on when a decision might come down.