Southwestern Women's Surgery Center, one of only eight abortion clinics still open in Texas.
One of the most conservative appeals courts in the country—the 5th Circuit—upheld a Texas law Tuesday that requires most of the state's abortion facilities to meet many of the same safety standards imposed on hospitals. Alexa Ura has
the details:
A three-judge panel of the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the state can require abortion clinics to meet ambulatory surgical center standards, which include minimum sizes for rooms and doorways, pipelines for anesthesia and other infrastructure. Only a handful of Texas abortion clinics in the state — all in major metropolitan areas — meet those standards.
The suit also challenged a portion of law that required doctors to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals. The Center for Reproductive Rights, which filed the lawsuit, sought an exemption from that requirement for two specific clinics—Whole Woman’s Health in McAllen and Reproductive Services in El Paso. The court granted a reprieve for the first clinic but not the second one.
The ruling will almost certainly be appealed, either to a review by the full 15-member appeals court (versus the 3-person panel that ruled today) or to the US Supreme Court.
In fact, different panels of 5th Circuit have sometimes reached differing conclusions on similar abortion laws. While one panel last year upheld the Texas admitting privileges law as constitutional, another panel blocked a similar law in Mississippi from going into affect last year.
Since 2013, nearly 30 abortion clinics in Texas have closed.