Texas abortion restrictions upheld by federal court
A federal appeals court sided with Texas’ right to enact strict the anti-abortion law, which could result in abortion clinics closing due to lack of medical protections for their patients.
The 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals made the ruling in a lawsuit challenging some of the toughest abortion restrictions in the US, including requirements that all abortion-providing health clinics employ hospital-level operating standards.
Texas may now be reduced to just seven clinics providing abortion services to women in the nation’s second biggest state with a population of 26.9 million.
Many abortion clinics in Texas have shut down as a result of the law. From the 40 clinics that were operating in 2012, the number is now down to 17 due to doctors not having admitting privilege at a nearby hospital in case of complications with the procedures.
The Texas Hospital Association said the admitting privilege requirement is unnecessary as women experiencing abortion complications can go to an emergency room for treatment and do not need their abortion doctor hospital staff for this to happen.
The lawyers said nearly nine in 10 women in Texas would still live within 150 miles of an abortion service provider despite the restrictions imposed by the law.
Texas made headlines with their abortion bill. Here a pro-abortion supporter mocks Christians singing ‘Amazing Grace’ in the Texas State Capitol building as her colleagues chant ‘Hail Satan’.
screenshot acahnman.blogspot.com
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton lauded the ruling, saying that “HB 2 both protects the unborn and ensures Texas women are not subjected to unsafe and unhealthy conditions.”
“Today’s decision by the Fifth Circuit validates that the people of Texas have authority to establish safe, common-sense standards of care necessary to ensure the health of women. Abortion practitioners should have no right to operate their businesses from sub-standard facilities and with doctors who lack admitting privileges at a hospital. This ruling will help protect the health and well-being of Texas women,” he said.
The Center for Reproductive Rights and the Texas women’s health care providers said they will appeal the ruling to the US Supreme Court.
“Not since before Roe v. Wade has a law or court decision had the potential to devastate access to reproductive health care on such a sweeping scale. Once again, women across the state of Texas face elimination of safe and legal options for ending a pregnancy, and the denial of their constitutional rights,” said Nancy Northup, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights.
Operators of small abortion clinics say they could not comply with the requirements since upgrading their facilities would cost them millions of dollars which they could not afford. These clinics and other abortion-rights supporters contend that the law was only meant to deny abortion services to women.
However, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott and other conservatives who support the law say the high standards stipulated in the law were only meant to protect women’s health.
Children at a protest in Texas, fighting against the abortion regulations
photo twitter: Abortion rally in Texas
