9 Facts About Abortion Rights a Federal Judge Is Forcing Texas Republicans To Heed

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http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/9-facts-about-abortion-rights-federal-judge-forcing-texas-republicans-heed


Republican Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott is running for governor. He has appealed a federal court ruling overturning the state's harsh new abortion clinic law.
Photo Credit: www.gregabbott.com

1. The U.S. Supreme Court has said no to harsh barriers. “A law is unconstitutional if it imposes an undue burden on a woman’s right to an abortion,” Yeakel wrote, quoting the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1992 Planned Parenthood of Pennsylvania v. Casey ruling. That precedent said, “A finding of an undue burden is a shorthand for the conclusion that a state regulation has the purpose or effect of placing a substantial obstacle in the path of a woman seeking an abortion of a nonviable fetus.”

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2. Texas would be left with seven or eight clinics. That would be the result if the “ambulatory surgical center requirement” took effect, Yeakel said. The “remaining abortion facilities will be located along the I-35 [interstate highway] and I-45 corridors; there will be one facility in Austin, two in Dallas, one in Ft. Worth, two in Houston, and either one or two in San Antonio.”

3. The anti-abortion law, HB2, creates a crisis. “The evidence introduced by the parties at trial reveals the breadth and effect of House Bill 2,” Yeakel wrote. “Texas contains nearly 280,000 square miles, is 10 percent larger than France, and is home to the second highest number of reproductive-age women in the United States. Such women account for approxinately 5.4 million of over 25 million Texas residents. In recent years, the numbers of abortions in Texas has stayed fairly consistent, at approximately 15-16 percent of the reported pregnancy rate, for a total number of approximately 60,000-72,000 legal abortions performed annually.”

4. The law has already shut half the state’s clinics. “Before the enactment of House Bill 2, there were more than 40 licensed abortion facilities providing abortion services throughout Texas,” he wrote. “That number dropped by almost half leading up to and in the wake of enforcement of the admitting privileges requirement that went into effect in late October 2013… If allowed to go into effect the act’s ambulatory-surgical-center requirement will further reduce the number of licensed abortion providers to, at most, eight.”

[Gothmog]

1. Good article