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Appeals court allows Texas to enforce controversial anti-abortion law Appeals court allows Texas to enforce controversial anti-abortion law
(35 minutes later)
A new Texas law that shutters all but a handful of abortion clinics in the state will now go into effect after a decision on Thursday by a panel in one of the nation’s most conservative courts. A new Texas law that shutters all but a handful of abortion clinics in the state will now go fully into effect after a decision on Thursday by a panel in one of the nation’s most conservative courts.
The panel in the fifth US circuit court of appeals stayed a federal district court judge’s decision from August that had blocked a provision of the law from going into effect while the parties awaited a definitive decision from the full appeals court. The panel in the fifth US circuit court of appeals stayed a federal district court judge’s decision from August that had blocked a controversial provision of the law from going into effect while the appeals court considers its constitutionality.
“Today’s ruling has gutted Texas women’s constitutional rights and access to critical reproductive health care and stands to make safe, legal abortion essentially,” Nancy Northup, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights, said in a statement. Thursday’s decision leaves the second largest state in the US with only seven abortion clinics.
More details soon ... “Today’s ruling has gutted Texas women’s constitutional rights and access to critical reproductive health care and stands to make safe, legal abortion essentially,” Nancy Northup, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights, which challenged the law, said in a statement.
The provision requires all abortion clinics in the state to meet hospital-style building requirements that opponents of the measure say are costly and unnecessarily burdensome – the stringent operational requirements would force clinics to spend millions to comply, which most can’t afford. As a result, critics say, clinics will close and many Texas women will have their access to abortion restricted.
The measure is a part of the state’s omnibus abortion law, a version of which was famously filibustered by state senator Wendy Davis, a Democrat now running for governor. The law shortens the timeframe for legal abortions to 20 weeks, requires abortion providers to maintain hospital admitting privileges, places new restrictions on medicated abortions, and compels clinics to meet the same building requirements as ambulatory surgical centres. The provisions have been rolled out in stages.
Nearly half of the state’s abortion clinics have closed since Governor Rick Perry signed the law in July 2013.
“This decision is a vindication of the careful deliberation by the Texas Legislature to craft a law to protect the health and safety of Texas women,” said Lauren Bean, a spokeswoman for the Texas Attorney General’s Office in a statement.
The Texas law is part of a relatively recent legislative trend to limit access to abortions by regulating facilities, providers and doctors, rather than the women seeking the procedure. The added red tape forces clinics that cannot afford to make the upgrades to close.