SAN ANTONIO (AP) -- Oral arguments on a motion to reconsider the U.S. Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion 31 years ago have been canceled by a federal appeals court, which will now only review written pleadings in the case.
Monday's move represented an about-face by justices on giving Jane Roe of Roe v. Wade fame a chance to argue before the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that her landmark abortion case should be reopened and reversed, the San Antonio Express-News reported Tuesday.
Former plaintiff Norma McCorvey of Dallas, who challenged Texas' abortion ban under the pseudonym Jane Roe, has contended that the case should be re-decided in light of evidence that the procedure may harm women.
The New Orleans-based appeals court had agreed they would hear McCorvey's arguments March 2. But the order signed Monday by Circuit Judge Edith H. Jones of Houston offered no explanation for why judges decided against the hearing a week beforehand.
Justices Edward C. Prado of San Antonio and Jacques L. Wiener Jr. of Shreveport, La., are the other judges on the panel that will now rely only on written briefs to decide whether the case can be reopened.
A federal district court in Dallas last year threw out her request days after it was filed, saying it wasn't made within a reasonable time.
Allan Parker, director of the San Antonio-based Texas Justice Foundation, which represents McCorvey, said he was surprised.
"It's highly unusual that they would designate a case for oral arguments and then withdraw it," Parker said Tuesday. He said it probably means "that the judges have made a decision and are fairly confident in what they intend to do."
"They may just be urging us to go to the Supreme Court," he said.
Parker said the panel denied a request by a group of law professors to argue the other side of the case. The professors were concerned that judges would decide the appeal based only on evidence provided by McCorvey since Dallas County District Attorney Bill Hill decided not to file a response.
Hill, the successor of Henry Wade named in Roe v. Wade, has argued that he is not the proper party in the issue.
McCorvey, who publicly identified herself in 1980 and now actively opposes abortion, filed her motion in June seeking to have the 1973 decision overturned.
The 5th Circuit panel could do several things: reverse the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, reverse the 2003 lower court's decision to throw out McCorvey's motion and order it be granted a hearing, or affirm the lower court's decision, which would prompt McCorvey to take her motion to the Supreme Court.
