Supreme Court Sojourns New Texas Abortion Law Restrictions: Judge Deems Rules Unlawful

By Staff Reporter | Aug 30, 2014 08:48 AM EDT

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On Friday, Supreme Court sojourned the new Texas Abortion Law restrictions. A federal judge deemed the ruling unlawful or unconstitutional.

In Austin, Texas, a federal judge blocked the new Texas Abortion Law restrictions that would have effectually shut down over a dozen clinics statewide in a triumph for opponents of tough new anti-abortion laws sweeping across the United States.  The Supreme Court halted the restrictions and found the ruling unlawful for the clinics imminent closure.

The new Texas Abortion Law that was sued over was signed by Republican Governor Rick Perry in 2013. United States District Judge Lee Yeakel sided with the clinics. The restrictions stop new clinic requirements. However, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, a Republican who is the favorable governor next year, promised to promptly appeal the ruling to try to preserve the new clinic rules by the judge. The judge cited other lawmakers' rules that have recently passed in his decision to toss out requirements that clinics meet hospital operating standards.

The new Texas Abortion Law restrictions sojourns a portion of the law that would have required abortion providers in Texas to have operating rooms, air filtration systems and other costly additions that are typically mandated only in surgical settings or based on hospital operating standards, which supporters say will protect women's health.

US District Judge Lee Yeakel wrote in his 21-page ruling that the overall effect of the provisions is to create an impermissible impediment as applied to all women seeking a previability abortion. He then concluded that the intent was only to shut down existing licensed abortion clinics.

The only remaining abortion clinics in Texas would have been in major cities and there would have been none in the entire western half of the nation's second largest state per the new Texas Abortion Law restrictions.

Amy Hagstrom Miller, CEO of Whole Woman's Health said in a statement that the evidence has been piling up against the state and the lawmakers who skeptically passed the laws in the name for safety. Whole Woman's Health would have been among the affected clinics.

Some Texan clinics already stopped offering abortions after another part of the new Texas Abortion Law restrictions required doctors to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals. The part of the ruling has been upheld by the 5th US Circuit Court in New Orleans, where the state will now pursue a second reversal.

Comparable rules to the new Texas Abortion Law have also been sojourned by federal courts in Mississippi, Kansas and Wisconsin. The imminent closure of abortion facilities was deemed unlawful by the federal judge. However, state attorneys denied that women would be burdened by fewer abortion providers. In conclusion, the public will just wait for the latest developments on the law's provisions and restrictions.

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