AUSTIN - The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to overrule a federal judge's preliminary injunction preventing the state of Texas from enforcing a strict abortion sonogram law scheduled to take effect on Saturday.

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott submitted an emergency application Wednesday night to Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia for the court to stay the preliminary injunction.

The setback triggered a wait-and-see response from Abbott.

"Our office continues to evaluate our options in defending the statute," Abbott spokesman Jerry Strickland said Thursday afternoon.

The sonogram bill, HB 12, was a priority for Republican lawmakers and one of Gov. Rick Perry's "emergency" bills.

U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks, of Austin, blocked enforcement of significant portions of the sonogram law on Aug. 30, until the case is resolved. Sparks found the law violates the First Amendment, ruling that requiring doctors to show a woman seeking an abortion the sonogram images, describe those images to her or play the sound of the fetal heart, even against her wishes, is unconstitutional.

"The district court's decision to block portions of this new law, which is intrusive and unconstitutional, was well-supported. There is no basis for the State's attempts to short-circuit the legal process by trying to nullify the court's decision on an emergency basis" said Julie Rikelman, senior staff attorney with the New York-based Center for Reproductive Rights.

Abbott went to Scalia after the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals declined to reverse Sparks' preliminary injunction.

At a hearing in July, Sparks indicated some discomfort with portions of the bill that critics consider vague - especially since a physician could be charged with a misdemeanor crime, be fined $10,000 and lose his medical license if he runs afoul of the law.

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Sparks has told lawyers in the case he likely will decide the case based on written briefs provided by the parties instead of handling the dispute after a trial.

Lawyers for the Center for Reproductive Rights expect all of the written briefs to be filed by mid-December.

gscharrer@express-news.net