WASHINGTON — Abortion providers in Texas asked the Supreme Court on Saturday to let their clinics continue to perform some procedures after a federal appeals court temporarily upheld orders from state officials prohibiting most abortions.

In their Supreme Court filing, lawyers from Planned Parenthood and the Center for Reproductive Rights said the health crisis did not justify severe restrictions on the constitutional right to abortion. At least medication abortions, which use pills to induce abortions, should be allowed to continue, they said.

Three weeks ago, Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, ordered a halt to “all surgeries and procedures that are not immediately medically necessary.” That included abortions “not medically necessary to preserve the life or health of the mother,” Ken Paxton, the state’s attorney general, said in a news release. Other abortions, he said, must be postponed to preserve protective gear and other resources to fight the coronavirus pandemic.

Abortion providers promptly challenged the orders as unconstitutional, and the case has twice reached the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, in New Orleans, which both times overturned temporary restraining orders issued by Judge Lee Yeakel, of the Federal District Court in Austin.