Planned Parenthood Up in Arms Over New Texas Abortion Limits
A new Texas law will shutter one-third of the state’s abortion clinics and eliminate access for women in rural areas, Planned Parenthood claims in court.
Planned Parenthood and several affiliated health clinics sued Texas officials to block parts of House Bill 2, which Gov. Rick Perry signed this summer after Texas lawmakers passed it during a special legislative session.
Democratic state Sen. Wendy Davis grabbed national headlines in June with an 11-hour filibuster to block a Senate version of the bill.
The bill bans abortions in Texas after 20 weeks, requires that doctors who perform abortions have admitting privileges at local hospitals, requires providers of medication-induced abortions to follow a drug regimen approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2000 and stipulates that abortion clinics meet the same standards as ambulatory surgical centers.
Planned Parenthood sued to block implementation of the law’s medication abortion restrictions, and the admitting-privileges mandate, both set to take effect in late October.
The organization called the rules for drug-induced abortions in Texas “outdated.”
“If the medication abortion restrictions and admitting privileges requirement are allowed to take effect on October 29, more than one-third of the state’s licensed abortion facilities will be forced to stop offering abortions altogether, eliminating services entirely in Fort Worth, Harlingen, Killeen, McAllen and Waco,” according to the complaint.
“Other facilities will be forced to decrease the number of abortions they provide. Many women will be unable to obtain a medication abortion. This will be devastating for Texas women, particularly low-income women, women who are victims of rape or abuse, women who need abortions later in pregnancy, and those who live outside of major metropolitan areas.”
More: Courthouse News Service