Judge orders Texas to suspend new law banning most abortions

Women protesting against the Texas anti-abortion law in the state capital Austin. A federal judge has ordered Texas to suspend the law (Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman/AP)

A federal judge on Wednesday ordered Texas to suspend the most restrictive abortion law in the US, which since September has banned most abortions in the nation’s second-most populous state.

The order by US District Judge Robert Pitman is the first legal blow to the Texas law known as Senate Bill 8, which until now had withstood a wave of early challenges.