Working pro bono, a team from Morrison & Foerster last week helped secure a win in a case challenging abortion restrictions in Texas.

Led by partner Alex Lawrence, the firm and co-counsel from the Center for Reproductive Rights plus local counsel Patrick J. O'Connell argued Texas law SB8, which attempted to limit the most common form of second-trimester abortion known as dilation and evacuation, was unconstitutional.

The law required that physicians ensure fetal demise in utero before performing the evacuation phase of the procedure. It also mandated burial or cremation of fetal tissue from certain procedures, regardless of a woman's personal wishes or religious beliefs.

After a five-day trial earlier this month, U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel on Nov. 22 struck it down.

“The court is unaware of any other medical context that requires a doctor—in contravention of the doctor's medical judgment and the best interest of the patient—to conduct a medical procedure that delivers no benefit to the woman,” wrote Yeakel, who was appointed by George W. Bush. “The court concludes that requiring a woman to undergo an unwanted, risky, invasive, and experimental procedure in exchange for exercising her right to choose an abortion, substantially burdens that right.”

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has already said his office will appeal the decision.