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"In a big win for abortion rights — not to mention common sense — a federal judge on Monday gutted a portion of a new Texas law that would have forced the closure of many abortion clinics by requiring their doctors to have unnecessary admitting privileges with local hospitals.
The ostensible point of the law, House Bill 2, versions of which have been successfully challenged in several other abortion-unfriendly states, is to make the procedure safer for women. That’s disingenuous. First-trimester abortions are extremely safe. Laws like these are part of the religious right’s never-ending strategy to restrict access to abortion in order to end it.
This was the law that made a celebrity out of Texas' Democratic state Sen. Wendy Davis after she filibustered it for 13 hours in June. She’s since announced she’s running for the Democratic nomination for governor. Presumably, she'll face Texas Atty. Gen. Greg Abbott, a defendant on the losing side of this case, which was brought by the ACLU, Planned Parenthood of Texas, the Center for Reproductive Rights and some Texas abortion clinic owners.
In his 26-page opinion, U.S. District Court Judge Lee Yeakel said the law was unconstitutional, as it put an undue burden on women exercising their unrestrictable right to first-trimester abortions.
Also, he concluded, it was completely unnecessary. "
"In a big win for abortion rights — not to mention common sense — a federal judge on Monday gutted a portion of a new Texas law that would have forced the closure of many abortion clinics by requiring their doctors to have unnecessary admitting privileges with local hospitals.
The ostensible point of the law, House Bill 2, versions of which have been successfully challenged in several other abortion-unfriendly states, is to make the procedure safer for women. That’s disingenuous. First-trimester abortions are extremely safe. Laws like these are part of the religious right’s never-ending strategy to restrict access to abortion in order to end it.
This was the law that made a celebrity out of Texas' Democratic state Sen. Wendy Davis after she filibustered it for 13 hours in June. She’s since announced she’s running for the Democratic nomination for governor. Presumably, she'll face Texas Atty. Gen. Greg Abbott, a defendant on the losing side of this case, which was brought by the ACLU, Planned Parenthood of Texas, the Center for Reproductive Rights and some Texas abortion clinic owners.
In his 26-page opinion, U.S. District Court Judge Lee Yeakel said the law was unconstitutional, as it put an undue burden on women exercising their unrestrictable right to first-trimester abortions.
Also, he concluded, it was completely unnecessary. "