Updated at 4:20 p.m. with additional comments.

AUSTIN -- Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton says the state has won an appeal to enforce its temporary abortion ban while the state litigates a lawsuit from abortion providers.

The appeal temporarily reverses a ruling from a federal judge on Monday allowing abortion providers to continue performing elective abortions while they fight against a state emergency order that halted most abortions.

On March 22, Gov. Greg Abbott banned “nonessential” medical procedures in an effort to preserve hospital capacity to treat patients with the coronavirus. Last week, Paxton said the governor’s order applied to any type of abortion procedure unless it was necessary to protect a woman’s health. The order remains in effect until April 21 unless it is extended.

Abortion providers filed a lawsuit seeking to overturn the ban. And Monday, hours after U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel granted abortion providers a temporary restraining order blocking the state from enforcing the ban, Paxton said his office would seek an appeal.

In a split decision, a panel of three federal judges from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled to temporarily stay, or block, Yeakel’s order to consider arguments from the abortion providers suing the state and other parties involved in the lawsuit.

Paxton claimed a “victory” from the 5th Circuit stay on Twitter on Tuesday afternoon.

UPDATE: Victory at 5th Circuit - Abortion ruling stayed! https://t.co/vmpyXsje0B — Attorney General Ken Paxton (@KenPaxtonTX) March 31, 2020

While Judges Stuart Kyle Duncan and Jennifer Walker Elrod ruled in favor of the state, Judge James L. Dennis sided with abortion providers against it.

Citing Yeakel’s decision, Dennis said in his dissenting opinion that not allowing abortion providers to continue operating under the state’s emergency executive order will cause “irreparable harm.”

He added that the executive order issued by Abbott for nonessential medical procedures to be postponed exempts procedures that do not require hospitals or personal protective equipment, despite Paxton’s warning that abortion providers could face fines of $1,000 or 180 days in jail for performing elective abortions under the order.

In their lawsuit, abortion providers argue that medically induced abortions through pills do not require hospital gear or the masks and gloves of which state has been facing shortages.

“I would deny the stay,” Dennis wrote. “Moreover, I write separately to make clear that, per the Executive Order, ‘any procedure that, if performed in accordance with the commonly accepted standard of clinical practice, would not deplete the hospital capacity or the personal protective equipment needed to cope with the COVID-19 disaster’ is exempt.”

Under Yeakel’s ruling Monday, Whole Woman’s Health clinics began providing abortion services again, said Amy Hagstrom Miller, president and CEO of Whole Woman’s Health and Whole Woman’s Health Alliance, two of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit.

“As recently as yesterday evening we rescheduled patient’s appointments after they had been waiting for over a week filled with uncertainty and anguish," Hagstrom Miller said in a statement. "Today we provided some of those patients the care they deserved, but just [like that] we have to stop and send the rest of today’s patients home. ... We refuse for this to become the new normal. We will persist.”

The coalition of abortion providers leading the suit will have until 8 a.m. Wednesday to contest the stay order, and other states can file briefs, the stay order says. The coalition includes Planned Parenthood clinics, the Brookside Women’s medical and health centers, the Southwestern Women’s Surgery Center in Dallas and Dr. Robin Wallace.

A sign on the door of Planned Parenthood prohibits entry by everyone but patients to limit the spread of COVID-19 on Tuesday, March 31, 2020 near Park Lane and Central Expressway in Dallas. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton says the state has won an appeal to enforce its temporary abortion ban while the state litigates a lawsuit from abortion providers, including Planned Parenthood. The only Dallas area location of Planned Parenthood which provides abortion services is in far southern Dallas near I-20 and U.S. 67. (Jeffrey McWhorter / Special Contributor)

Abortion rights advocates say halting elective abortions during the pandemic will prevent some women from getting an abortion altogether since the state already bans elective abortions after 20 weeks of fertilization.

“Let’s be clear, it is never the right time to play politics, but doing so in the wake of COVID-19 is a despicable low," Aimee Arrambide, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Texas, said in a statement. "Texans know abortion is a time-sensitive procedure that can not be delayed without profound consequences and Texans will remember that when they needed help during a pandemic, their state leaders were too busy politicizing and banning abortion care.”

The conservative group Texas Values thanked the appeals court for its ruling

“We appreciate the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals’ quick common-sense decision to save lives," said Mary Elizabeth Castle, a policy adviser for Texas Values.

Correction on April 9: A previous version of this story incorrectly said Gov. Greg Abbott issued the emergency executive order on March 21 instead of March 22.