Great news for the women in Texas, as well as women around the country. This just in from the
New York Times:
A federal judge in Austin, Tex., blocked a stringent new rule on Friday that would have forced more than half of the state’s remaining abortion clinics to close, the latest in a string of court decisions that have at least temporarily kept abortion clinics across the South from being shuttered.
The Texas rule, requiring all abortion clinics to meet the building, equipment and staffing standards of hospital-style surgery centers, had been set to take effect on Monday. But in his opinion, Judge Lee Yeakel of the United States District Court in Austin said the mandate placed unjustified obstacles on women’s access to abortion without providing significant medical benefits.
The rule “is unconstitutional because it imposes an undue burden on the right of women throughout Texas to seek a pre-viability abortion,” Judge Yeakel wrote.
The Austin Chronicle reports:
The Texas Hospital Association, representing more than 400 hospitals, called the restrictions unnecessary because women experiencing abortion complications can go to an emergency room and be treated, and did not need their abortion doctor to be on the hospital staff for this to happen.
Texas Women have
been through this before. This case addresses the very HB2 Bill for which Wendy Davis held a 13-hour filibuster in June 2013. The bill was passed by the Texas GOP that summer, ignoring Davis's filibuster and thousands of Texas women who came out to protest. Then in September, Planned Parenthood sued the state of Texas and a part of the Texas's restrictive abortion law was struck down by Judge Yeakel. Federal Judge Yeakel's decision was then
appealed and won by Texas DA Greg Abbott. The abortion restrictions were reinstated.
To simplify the sequence of events:
1. Texas GOP introduces anti-choice, anti-abortion HB2 Billin the Spring of 2013
2. Wendy Davis holds a 13-hour filabuster in June 2013
3. GOP passes HB2 Billanyway in July 2013
4. Planned Parenthood sues September 2013
5. Judge Yeakel strikes down abortion restrictions declaring them unconstitutional in September 2013
6. DU Greg Abbott appeals and wins in October 2013. Restrictions reinstated.
7. Judge Yeakel strikes down key abortion restrictions August 29, 2014 (see above)
8. Prediction: Greg Abbott appeals, but will he win?…
Many women have had to go out-of-state to seek their constitutional right to an abortion. The misogynistic, anti-choice bills that have been passed, courtesy of the GOP Congress, over the last two years have been nonstop and horrendous. There is good that has come from all of this. The War Against Women has ‘awakened’ many, and it is predicted women will show up in record numbers for the Midterm Elections this November. Most women in the country have had it, and will not forget the lawmakers who have chipped away at women’s rights. The ‘word’ is, women will not forget – and they will not ‘go back’.
Ever.
Full document: NYC
Read more about the effects of the TX abortions restrictions in Meteor Blades/Daily Kos diary.
Special thanks to Bob T.
Please Note: In my excitement to see this news, I did not do a Daily Kos search before I published it here. I thought I was the first. Come to find out later, TexasDoubleDD already posted about it! Here is the Daily Kos link. Good work, TXDoubleDD and my apologies.