A federal appeals court has upheld a Texas law requiring abortion clinics to have hospital-grade facilities, which could cause many providers in the state to close.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit said most of the law can take effect across the state because challengers failed to prove the new requirements impose an “undue burden” on women seeking an abortion.
“Because the plaintiffs failed to prove that the [ambulatory surgical center] requirement imposes an undue burden on a large fraction of women for whom it is relevant, we conclude that the district court erred in striking down the … requirement as a whole,” the three-judge panel wrote in a decision released Tuesday afternoon.
Two years ago, Texas passed a far-reaching law saying that abortion clinics must meet the standards of surgical center facilities and abortion providers must have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital. It also bans abortions past 20 weeks of pregnancy.
The case decided Tuesday is one of two prominent cases challenging different parts of the law. It sought to have the ambulatory surgical center requirement struck, along with the admitting privileges requirement for two individual clinics, one in McAllen and one in El Paso.
The court sided with the challengers on one point, saying the McAllen clinic should be exempt from the admitting privileges law because there is “considerable evidence” the doctors there weren’t able to gain privileges for reasons unrelated to their competence.
The decision delighted abortion opponents while frustrating those in favor of abortion rights.
“Not since before Roe v. Wade has a law or court decision had the potential to devastate access to reproductive health care on such a sweeping scale,” said Nancy Northup, president of the Center for Reproductive Rights.
“Once again, women across the state of Texas face the near total elimination of safe and legal options for ending a pregnancy, and the denial of their constitutional rights,” she said.
