Texas seeks emergency ruling so it can enact abortion law

[TexasTowelie]

Moving to begin immediate enforcement of the state’s new abortion law, lawyers for Texas asked a federal appeals court Tuesday to lift a day-old injunction banning a provision that could force 13 of the state’s 32 clinics to close.

Attorney General Greg Abbott’s office asked the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to issue an emergency stay to allow full enforcement of House Bill 2, including a provision requiring abortion doctors to gain admitting privileges in a hospital within 30 miles of the clinic.

On Monday, U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel ruled the admitting privileges requirement violated the U.S. Constitution by placing an unreasonable burden on women seeking an abortion while offering no discernible health benefit for patients.

Abbott’s office quickly notified the appeals court that Texas will challenge Yeakel’s ruling, then followed Tuesday morning by asking the court to allow Texas to enforce HB 2 while its appeal continues.

The state’s motion, signed by Solicitor General Jonathan Mitchell with the state attorney general’s office, argued that Yeakel’s ruling applied the wrong constitutional standard and failed to cite “a single (undue) burden on a single abortion patient.”

“Indeed, the plaintiffs acknowledged that HB 2 would impose little or no burden on tens of thousands of the state’s abortion patients, as their expert found that more than 90 percent of them would remain able to secure an abortion within 100 miles of their residence,” the motion said.

Noting that the admitting privileges requirement was supposed to take effect Tuesday, Mitchell asked the court to act on the motion by the close of business. The New Orleans-based court closed at 5 p.m., however, without addressing the request.

Mitchell also asked the court to set an expedited briefing schedule on the state’s appeal of Yeakel’s ruling. The goal, he wrote, is to set oral arguments for as early as January.

Yeakel’s ruling followed a three-day trial in which abortion providers testified that some doctors had been unable to get admitting privileges within the law’s 90-day deadline, requiring 13 clinics to shut down.

Heather Busby, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Texas, said evidence showed that the closures would prevent more than 22,000 women from being able to obtain an abortion over the next year.

“I’m not sure what trial the (Abbott’s) attorneys were in, but the evidence overwhelmingly supported the judge’s ruling,” Busby said. “By pushing this extreme and harmful law, Abbott is sending the message that he doesn’t trust Texas women to make personal, private decisions about their health and their bodies.”

http://www.mystatesman.com/news/news/texas-seeks-emergency-ruling-so-it-can-enact-abort/nbcD7/

[Loudly]

1. This one is destined to go against Texas.

Admitting privileges have nothing to do with emergency care if a crisis develops during an abortion procedure.

And my understanding is that such emergency care from an unexpected reaction to an abortion procedure is really very rare to begin with.

[longship]

2. This is not going to work out well for the GOP.

The whole fucking idiotic party has gone -- get a bowl, spoon and some milk -- cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs.

The thing is is that they're doing this pretty much across the country. The national party leadership (the delegation) has been taken over by evangelicals and outright dominionists (replace the Bill of Rights with the Ten Commandments). The local party power resides solely with lunatics. This has long since trickled up to the state and national delegations.

The GOP is either totally fucked, or we all are. There are no other alternatives. Unfortunately, few are speaking about it, and those that are, get zero traction.

[blkmusclmachine]

3. The Republican Party's War On Women marches forever on...