Abortion rights advocates sue over Texas law
Updated 2:47 pm, Friday, September 27, 2013
Abortion rights advocates, including Planned Parenthood in Texas, filed a lawsuit in federal court on Friday that seeks to block two provisions of a recently passed state law that it said would severely restrict women's access to safe, legal abortion.
The provisions require doctors who perform abortions to have admitting privileges at a hospital within a 30-mile radius and impose restrictions on medication-induced abortions. Both are scheduled to take effect Oct. 29.
“This law is unconstitutional and it interferes with women's ability to make their own private medical decisions and it absolutely jeopardizes women's health and safety in Texas,” Richards said during a telephone conference call with media about the lawsuit.
A spokesman for Attorney General Greg Abbott said his office had no immediate response to the lawsuit.
Nancy Northrup, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights, said courts have blocked similar provisions in other states across the country, including Alabama, Mississippi, North Dakota and Wisconsin.
State courts in North Dakota and Oklahoma have permanently struck down restrictions on medication abortion.
Abortion rights advocates “portray themselves as being the voice of women, so why would they object to these requirements?” she said. “Why not make (abortion) as safe as possible? Why send them to a butcher shop? All doctors have to have hospital admitting privileges, and if a doctor doesn't have them it because they've screwed up so bad. Why would you want to use them?”
Read more about the lawsuit at ExpressNews.com.