A federal judge on Monday blocked part of a recently signed Texas law that requires abortion doctors to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals. District Judge Lee Yeakel declared that the new regulations, passed during a special legislative session this summer, unconstitutionally restricted women’s access to abortion clinics and infringed on doctors’ rights to act in their patients’ best interests. Read more below.
The law, one of the strictest in the nation, banned abortions at 20 weeks of pregnancy and required doctors to perform all abortion in surgical facilities starting next October. Doctors would also be required to have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of an abortion clinic, which opponents said would force 13 of the state’s 32 clinics to close.
Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott is expected to appeal to the U.S. 5th Circuit Courts of Appeals in New Orleans, which would rule on the merits of the law.
