Texas officials have appealed a decision made Monday in federal court that
would block a part of the state’s new abortion law requiring doctors who
perform an abortion to have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital.
District Judge Lee Yeakel ruled Monday that the provision in the bill
violates the rights of abortion doctors to do what they think is best for their
patients and would unreasonably restrict a woman’s access to abortion clinics.
Attorney General Greg Abbott filed an emergency appeal of Yeakel's order to
the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans.
Lawyers for Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers brought the
lawsuit, arguing that a requirement that doctors have admitting privileges at a
hospital within 30 miles of the abortion clinic would force the closure of a
third of the clinics in Texas.
They also complained that requiring doctors to follow the Food and Drug
Administration's original label for an abortion-inducing drug would deny women
the benefit of recent advances in medical science.
The Texas attorney general's office argued that the law protects women and
the life of the fetus.
