Texas Supreme Court temporarily HALTS lower court ruling allowing pregnant mother, 31, to have an abortion at 20 weeks after she learned her fetus has fatal condition

The Texas Supreme Court has halted a lower court ruling that would have allowed a Dallas woman to have an abortion after learning the fetus had a fatal condition.

Late Friday evening, the state court said it would adopt an administrative stay before ruling “without regard to the merits of the case.”

The decision came in response to an appeal from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who opposed the woman's abortion.

The delay means that an earlier order from a Travis County District Court judge allowing the abortion is now stayed.

That order allowed the woman, Kate Cox, to have an abortion and protected her doctor from civil or criminal liability under Texas' strict, overlapping abortion bans.

“We fear that justice delayed will also be denied,” said Molly Duane, a senior staff attorney at the Center for Reproductive Rights, which is representing Cox.