Texas’s restrictive abortion law was temporarily reinstated by a US appeals court on Friday. The law bars the procedure six weeks into pregnancy and outsources enforcement of the ban to ordinary citizens. 

The US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit granted a request to temporarily suspend a judge’s order blocking the ban on Friday. The request was made by the Texas Attorney General’s Office. 

The administrative stay from the Fifth Circuit, a conservative-leaning appeals court, is a part of the lawsuit brought by the US Justice Department on September 9. The purpose of the administrative stay is to give the court enough time to determine whether to issue a more permanent ruling.

The Justice Department has been given until Tuesday to respond to Texas’ filing. The Texas abortion law makes no exceptions for pregnancies caused by rape or incest. Having taken into effect on September 1, the law lets ordinary citizens enforce the ban, rewarding them a minimum of $10,000 if they sue anyone who helped provide an abortion after fetal cardiac activity is detected. 

The Justice Department has argued that “the law impedes women from exercising their constitutional right to terminate a pregnancy that was recognized in the Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, which legalized abortion nationwide.” The department also further added that “the law improperly interferes with the operations of the federal government to provide abortion-related services.”

“This is a deeply alarming order that will allow Texas’ abortion ban to go back into effect at a time when abortion providers were quickly starting to resume abortion care for all patients,” said Brigitte Amiri, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union.

Amiri said “the ACLU hopes the litigation “moves swiftly” so the Texas abortion law can be halted again, potentially by the U.S. Supreme Court”.