5th Circuit overturns stay on Texas abortion law; 13 of 21 remaining clinics closed overnight
A federal appeals court decision upholding the enforcement of a sweeping Texas abortion law led to the immediate shutdown of 13 abortion clinics, leaving just eight in operation, all of which are in large cities or metropolitan areas, the New York Times reports.
Overruling an August decision by federal district court Judge Lee Yeakel in Austin, a three-judge panel of the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals said Thursday that plaintiffs’ claim that new safety requirements for abortion clinics would force a “large fraction” Texas women seeking abortions to drive more than 150 miles was insufficient evidence of an unconstitutional burden. The panel pointed out that the plaintiffs’ own expert’s testimony was that that distance would apply to one in six women.
“This is nowhere near a ‘large faction,’” the panel wrote, in refusing to stop the state from enforcing the restrictive provisions while the law is being appealed.
The Texas law requires abortion clinics to meet various standards required of hospital-style surgical centers, which can be prohibitively expensive to do. In the sprawling, second-largest state in the nation, no abortion facilities now operate west or south of San Antonio.
The eight which can continue to operate are located in Houston, Austin and two other metropolitan areas; 5.4 million women of reproductive age live in Texas, according to the Times.
The “ruling has gutted Texas women’s constitutional rights and access to critical reproductive care, and stands to make safe, legal abortion essentially disappear overnight,” said Nancy Northrup, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights, a party to the suit.
But the executive director of the anti-abortion group Texas Alliance for Life, Joe Pojman, praised the state attorney general’s legal team for “their effective defense of Texas law from challenges from the abortion industry.”
The appeals panel decision doesn’t end the matter; Thursday’s ruling concerned a request by the state’s lawyers for an emergency stay of the August lower court opinion. Plaintiffs are considering a request for an en banc review or an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The law at issue passed in July 2013, after a lengthy and highly publicized filibuster by Democratic state senator Wendy Davis. At the time, Texas had 41 abortion facilities, which had dropped to 21 recently, before Thursday’s ruling reduced the number to eight.
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