AUSTIN — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Friday asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit to uphold Alabama's ban on "dismemberment" abortions, days after the Texas Senate gave preliminary approval to a similar ban.

"It is a solemn day when we must fight not for human life, but for the minimum respect owed to human life in an already difficult situation," Paxton said in a prepared statement. "Dismemberment methods of abortion are callous, cold and demonstrate a complete lack of respect for human life. In a country where the horror of abortion has already become normalized, if this practice goes unregulated, the balance between women's reproductive rights and the risk of devaluing human life will be scattered to the wind."

Opponents of the practice define "dismemberment" abortion as a procedure in which the fetus is killed when a physician uses medical instruments to remove it from a woman's uterus in pieces. Abortion providers say the phrase does not refer to a medical practice and instead plays to people's emotions.

Alabama on Friday appealed a federal judge's ruling blocking the implementation of the ban, adopted by the state in 2016.

Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma and West Virginia have all enacted similar bans on "dismemberment" procedures, according to a press release from Paxton's office.

Banning this procedure is a key anti-abortion priority for Texas lawmakers this session. The Senate gave preliminary approval to the ban Thursday with a 22-8 vote, despite concerns from some lawmakers that it could eliminate what doctors say is the safest available abortion method.

Other bills in play this session include a ban on "partial-birth" abortions — a late-term procedure already prohibited under federal law — and the donation of fetal tissue for research. Another requires fetal remains from an abortion to be buried or cremated.