U.S.
Juan Carlos LLorca / AP
With fewer than 10 clinics now open in Texas, women in large parts of the state may no longer be able to terminate pregnancies or may be forced to travel long distances to obtain abortions, having them later in their pregnancies and incurring greater expenses, abortion-rights advocates said Friday.
“It’s devastating to go from over 40 abortion clinics to less than 10 in three years,” said Elizabeth Nash, an associate at Guttmacher Institute, a nonprofit group focused on reproductive health and rights.
After an appeals court on Thursday upheld a state law that abortion clinics must meet the standards of “hospital-style surgical centers” and that physicians must have admission privileges at a nearby hospital, about a dozen clinics closed overnight, leaving just seven or eight operational in Texas.
But anti-abortion groups welcomed the ruling.
“We’re very excited about this decision, and we’re not the only ones who feel this way,” said Emily Horne, a legislative associate at Texas Right to Life, a group that fights for the “rights of the unborn.”
Calling the Texas law “medically unnecessary and overly burdensome,” Lisa Brown, senior policy director at the National Abortion Federation, said it could “severely limit the ability of Texas women to access that [high-quality abortion] care.”
Nash explained that the ruling would require abortion centers to operate as ambulatory service centers, resembling a “mini hospital.” Those requirements include ventilation systems that are hospital grade, certain size rooms for operation, a minimum width for hallways and parking lot space.
These conditions are out of scale, given that “only half of a percent of abortions in the U.S. have complications that require hospitalization,” she said, adding that the financial burden will make it impossible for many centers to remain open.
But anti-abortion advocates disagree. Horne said, “Whatever that number is, everyone in Texas deserves that higher safety standard, even if she is in the small percentage [of cases that result in complications].”
The legislation also requires physicians to have privileges to admit patients to a nearby hospital. “As such, hospitals may refuse to grant physicians these privileges because of outside pressure or a religious affiliation or require physicians to live within a certain distance of the hospital or to admit a minimum number of patients to the hospital each year,” said Brown.
“This is a very messy situation in Texas, because we have two court cases,” Nash said. “It is very confusing for the clinics, women and public.”
In the summer of 2013, the state approved legislation (Texas House Bill No. 2, or HB2) that set tough new restrictions on abortion clinic. The provision requiring physicians to have admission privileges went into effect in the fall of 2013. Another one requiring clinics to meet hospital-style standards was supposed to go into effect on Sept. 1, 2014. A district court struck down both those provisions last month, but the appeals court reversed that ruling.
“This is a devastating day for Texas women,” said Jennifer Dalven, director of the American Civil Liberties Union Reproductive Freedom Project, in a press release. “It essentially tells extreme politicians not to worry about medical evidence or … women’s safety.”
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