WACO, Texas -- A federal appellate court upheld some of the toughest provisions of a Texas abortion law on Tuesday, putting 13 of the state's abortion clinics at risk of permanently shutting their doors, which would leave the nation's second-most populous state with eight abortion providers.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans sided for the most part with Texas and the abortion law the Republican-dominated Legislature passed in 2013, known as House Bill 2. It ruled that Texas can require all abortion clinics in the state to meet the same building, equipment and staffing standards as hospital-style surgical centers.
Thirteen clinics whose facilities do not meet the new standards could be forced to close, leaving many regions without abortion clinics.
The court cited the explanations given by the Texas Legislature for what is considered one of the most restrictive abortion laws in the country.
"Texas' stated purpose for enacting H.B. 2 was to provide the highest quality of care to women seeking abortions and to protect the health and welfare of women seeking abortions," read the 5th Circuit ruling. "There is no question that this is a legitimate purpose that supports regulating physicians and the facilities in which they perform abortions."
But clinic owners and women's-health groups said the real reason for the legislation was to shut down clinics, not to improve them.
"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, the president and chief executive of the Center for Reproductive Rights, whose lawyers were part of the legal team representing the clinics that sued the state. "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."
Northup's center said in a statement that the law's building-standards requirement would go into effect for all clinics in the state in 22 days. Clinic owners have argued that the new standards were unnecessary and costly. The state's lawyers, as well as the Republican lawmakers who passed the law in 2013, argued that the standards improved patient safety.
In addition to the surgical standards, the court also ruled against clinic owners on another aspect of the law, a requirement that doctors performing abortions obtain admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of a clinic. The court said the provision did not put an unconstitutional burden on women seeking abortions.
It made an exception for a facility in McAllen, Texas, on the grounds that it is the only abortion facility in the area.
The ruling was expected. The 5th Circuit is regarded by many as one of the most conservative federal appellate courts in the country. Clinic owners and their lawyers said they will appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, setting up what could be the first significant test of one of the key legal issues raised by the Texas case -- what amounts to an "undue burden" for women seeking abortions.
Lawyers for the Texas clinics said about 900,000 reproductive-age women will live more than 150 miles from the nearest open facility in the state when the surgical-center requirement and admitting privileges rule take effect and several clinics close.
The Texas attorney general, Ken Paxton, called the 5th Circuit's decision upholding the law, a "victory for life and women's health."
"H.B. 2 both protects the unborn and ensures Texas women are not subjected to unsafe and unhealthy conditions," Paxton said in a statement. "Today's decision by the 5th Circuit validates that the people of Texas have authority to establish safe, common-sense standards of care necessary to ensure the health of women."
Information for this article was contributed by James Queally and Maria L. La Ganga of the Los Angeles Times.
A Section on 06/10/2015