Category: The Constitution
Level: National
This article concerns policies that affect individuals and
families.
This article discusses the federal appeals court decision to
allow Texas to fully enforce strict abortion regulations
My views:
A panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has
overturned U.S. District Judge Lee Yaekel’s decision that requiring doctors to
gain admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of abortion clinics is
unconstitutional. This means that 13 of the 32 Texan abortion clinics will be
closed because their doctors have not been able to gain admitting privileges, effectively
limiting women’s access to abortion. This is unconstitutional.
There is no evidence that the outcome for women receiving
abortion services from doctors with admitting privileges within 30 miles of the
clinic is any better than for women whose doctors do not have admitting privileges.
Often times, rural clinics depend on doctors who live far away and have
admitting privileges at hospitals in their home city. Just because they don’t
have admitting privileges doesn’t mean that the woman has any less access to
hospital care.
Doctors without admitting privileges perform colonoscopies,
liposuctions, etc. in clinics every day. Singling out abortion clinics for this
requirement is unconstitutional.
This is a battle lost, but the war is yet to be determined.
House Bill 2 will be ruled as constitutional or unconstitutional in January.
For now, 40% of the state’s abortion clinics must shut their doors.
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