Texas is again defending new anti-abortion measures in court after a federal judge stopped a ban on a commonly used second-trimester abortion procedure.
A trial that began Thursday in Austin comes two months after U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel temporarily blocked Texas from enforcing its latest anti-abortion law passed by the Republican-controlled Legislature.
The measure outlaws a procedure known as dilation and evacuation, which abortion providers say rarely results in complications. Courts have blocked similar laws in at least four other states.
Federal courts earlier this year also stopped Texas from mandating burial or cremation of fetal remains and cutting off Medicaid dollars to Planned Parenthood.
The trial is expected to last several days.
