US judge halts key part of Texas abortion law

A US judge has threw out new abortion restrictions that would have effectively banned the procedure at most facilities in Texas, the latest battleground in the ongoing battle over the divisive issue.
US District Judge Lee Yeakel yesterday sided with clinics that sued over one of the most disputed measures of a sweeping anti-abortion bill signed by Republican Governor Rick Perry in 2013.
The ruling stops new restrictions that would have would have essentially closed more than a dozen clinics, leaving seven abortion facilities in Texas by September 1, according to groups challenging the law.
Abortion has been a much-debated issue in the US in the decades since the Supreme Court affirmed a right to the procedure, and several states have tried to chip away at access under a variety of laws and proposed laws.

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, a Republican who is the favorite to become governor, was expected to appeal yesterday's ruling.
Opposition to the Texas law was so visible that Democrat Wendy Davis launched her campaign for governor behind the celebrity she achieved through a nearly 13-hour filibuster last summer that temporarily blocked the bill in the state Senate. Her opponent in November is Abbott.

The law would have required abortion facilities in Texas to meet hospital-level operating standards, which supporters say will protect women's health.
Clinics called it a backdoor effort to outlaw abortions, which has been a constitutional right since a landmark ruling by the US Supreme Court in 1973. Outraged abortion clinic owners say they can't afford to make those upgrades, which they criticize as unnecessary.

The more stringent Texas requirements would have mandated operating rooms and air filtration systems. Some clinics already no longer offer abortions after another part of the 2013 bill required doctors to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals.
Similar laws about admitting privileges have been blocked by federal courts in Mississippi, Kansas and Wisconsin.
Attorneys for the state denied that women would be burdened by fewer abortion facilities, saying nearly 9 in 10 women in Texas would still live within 240 kilometers of a provider.
Critics say that still leaves nearly a million Texas women embarking on drives longer than three hours to get an abortion.