Texas Supreme Court temporarily HALTS lower court ruling allowing pregnant mother, 31, to have an abortion at 20 weeks after she learned her fetus has fatal condition

The Texas Supreme Court has halted a lower court ruling that would have allowed a Dallas woman to have an abortion after she learned the fetus has a fatal condition.

Late on Friday night the state's court said that 'without regard to the merits' of the case it is taking an administrative stay before ruling. 

The decision came in response to an appeal from Attorney General Ken Paxton of Texas, who opposed the woman's abortion.

The stay means an earlier order from a judge in Travis County district court permitting the abortion is now on hold.

That order allowed the woman, Kate Cox, to obtain an abortion and protected her doctor from civil or criminal liability under Texas's strict overlapping abortion bans.

'We fear that justice delayed will be justice denied,' said Molly Duane, a senior staff attorney at the Center for Reproductive Rights, which is representing Cox. 

Mother-of-two Cox was granted permission to have an abortion after discovering her 20-week fetus was fatally impaired and could jeopardize her chances of another child. 

The 31-year-old told the state court in Texas earlier this month that she had received emergency medical treatment four times since becoming pregnant with a baby that doctors expect to be stillborn.