Abortion-rights groups painted a national legal landscape for challenges to state abortion laws and spoke specifically about Texas, where clinics are eagerly awaiting a federal decision regarding the state’s ambulatory surgical center standards.
Julie Rickelman with the Center for Reproductive Rights said Texas has become the focal point for the national fight against these types of restrictions.
“We don’t have to speculate about what these types of laws do to abortion access in the states," Rickelman said. "Instead, we can look over the border from Louisiana and Mississippi to Texas, where that state’s admitting privileges law has shuttered a number of safe abortion providers leaving women in large parts of the state with no access at all.”
Rickelman represents some of clinics in the most recent case challenging the one-year-old abortion law known as House Bill 2.
“The final provision of that bill, which requires abortion clinics to meet the same requirements as ambulatory surgical centers, threatens to leave at most seven clinics in the state on September 1 if it is not blocked,” Rickelman said,
Attorneys are expecting Austin Federal District Judge Lee Yeakel to render a decision in th case by the end of this week. Rickelman said that will most likely lead to an appeal to the U.S. 5th Circuit Court, where the group is also arguing a challenge against Texas admitting privileges requirement of HB2.
