Court Rules Abortion Restriction Unconstitutional

[fizzgig]

Less than 24 hours before new abortion regulations were set to take effect in Texas, U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel on Monday blocked implementation of one provision challenged by abortion providers and partially blocked a second provision, ruling that they could place an undue burden on women and are therefore unconstitutional.

In his opinion, Yeakel wrote that a provision of House Bill 2 that requires doctors performing abortions to have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of the abortion facility "places a substantial obstacle in the path of a woman seeking an abortion of a nonviable fetus and is thus an undue burden to her.”

He wrote that a second provision requiring women to follow a federally approved regimen for drug-induced abortion — as opposed to a more commonly used evidence-based regimen — would not generally place an undue burden on women seeking abortions. But he said it would be unconstitutional for the state to ban a woman from having such an abortion if it was safer for the woman in a physician's "appropriate medical judgment." Yeakel’s ruling allows a physician to use the evidence-based protocol for drug-induced abortions in certain situations that present a risk to the health and safety of the mother.

The state immediately appealed the court's ruling, meaning the case heads to the 5th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, which has recently upheld numerous laws that restrict abortion. “We appreciate the trial court’s attention in this matter," Lauren Bean, a spokeswoman for Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, wrote in a statement. "As everyone — including the trial court judge — has acknowledged, this is a matter that will ultimately be resolved by the appellate courts or the U.S. Supreme Court.”

the rest from the texas tribune

have i just missed the abortion mill horror stories that dingbat rick perry is talking about?

[Brettongarcia]

1. This good decision, unfortunately, was next re-reversed by Scalia, pending Supreme Court case

The justice who reviews controversial/appealed Texas cases, to sustain or block suspension of laws like Perry's anti-abortion law, happens to be the arch conservative justice, Scalia. He's since re-instated Perry's law. Though all this is pending a full Supreme Court case by Planned Parenthood.

In the meantime, more than a dozen clinics and their abortion services, are still shut down in Texas.

Abortion opponents are claiming it is a health issue; claiming that clinic physicians need to have (financially expensive) admission rights to local hospitals. Though 1) clearly the opposition as originally not health-based, but morality-based (conservative Catholic, etc.); the groups that opposed clinics in Texas typically announced a moral, not health aim, in their very name: they were "Pro Life" and so forth. Not health groups.

Confirming that, 2) key physicians in Texas flatly say that such "health" measures are not medically indicated. But in fact are examples of conservative Christian moral views increasingly imposed on Science and medicine.

By the way, Rick Perry of course is a person who wanted to shut down whole segments of the government - but then couldn't remember in the debates which ones. But for the Texas base, don't overlook however Sen. Patrick. He's the former conservative Limbaugh-like talk show host from Houston, who also backs all these anti-abortion measures from the Texas Senate; now running for Lt. Gov. Texas?