Court reinstates abortion restrictions

[Poche]

Texas pro-life advocates have claimed victory after a federal appeals court unanimously reinstated state rules that require abortion doctors to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals.

“Legislators worked so hard to pass House Bill 2 because they are not only concerned about protecting the unborn, but also about women going to abortion clinics with sub-standard conditions and unsanitary equipment,” Elizabeth Graham, director of Texas Right to Life, said Oct. 31.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit on Oct. 31 reinstated a provision of an abortion law that requires abortion doctors to have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of their clinic.

The appellate court’s ruling overturned the decision of U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel, who had ruled Oct. 28 that the provision was unconstitutional and issued a permanent injunction against it.

[Poche]

Women seeking to terminate their pregnancies were turned away at clinics across Texas on Friday, providers said, after strict new regulations for physicians who perform abortions prompted a dozen facilities to stop offering them.

Facilities that continue to perform abortions were flooded with calls from women trying to find alternatives, clinic officials said.

"They're calling from all over - Fort Worth, West Texas, all over Dallas, Oklahoma, everywhere," said Betty Pettigrew, director at Routh Street Women's Clinic in downtown Dallas, which has offered abortion services since 1978.

Offices were inundated with calls after a federal appeals court ruled on Thursday that a provision of a new Texas law that requires all doctors performing abortions to have an agreement with a local hospital to admit patients could go into immediate effect.

The provision was part of a sweeping anti-abortion law, passed in July by the Republican-led Texas Legislature, that also requires abortion clinics to meet heightened building standards, bans abortion after 20 weeks and requires strict adherence to federal guidelines in prescribing the so-called abortion pill.

Hours after the decision from the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, managers or employees of 12 clinics from El Paso to Dallas to the Rio Grande Valley said their facilities would either drastically reduce the number of procedures, or stop providing abortions altogether.