Health Care Providers Ask Full Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals to Reconsider Texas Law that Blocks Ab
Source: ACLU
April 10, 2014
2:33 PM
Health Care Providers Ask Full Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals to Reconsider Texas Law that Blocks Abortion Access
AUSTIN - April 10 - The American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Texas, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, and the Center for Reproductive Rights have filed a petition asking the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit to reconsider the constitutionality of the provision of Texas’ H.B. 2, which requires abortion providers to have hospital admitting privileges. This is a measure that has forced some health centers to close and others to stop providing abortions, making access to abortion services scarce in the state.
While the federal district court struck down the requirement as unconstitutional, a panel of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals blocked that ruling, allowing the law to take effect and forcing abortion providers across the state to stop providing abortions or close altogether, leaving thousands of women without access to care. Two weeks ago, the Fifth Circuit panel issued a final decision upholding the law.
Today’s filing asks the full Fifth Circuit to reconsider this decision.
“We’re asking the court to acknowledge what is crystal clear—this law hurts women,” said Louise Melling, deputy legal director for the ACLU. “Because of this law, women are being forced to choose between putting food on the table and traveling hundreds of miles to get the care they need. This law does absolutely nothing to further patient safety.”
“Thousands of Texas women are teetering on the brink of a pre-Roe reality, when the options for women seeking to end a pregnancy were illegal at best and deadly at worst,” said Nancy Northup, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights. “We look to the full court to enforce the Constitution, follow Supreme Court precedent, recognize the real life harms to the women of Texas, and block this law from being enforced."
Read more: https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2014/04/10-0
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