October, 28 2013, 04:07pm EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Robyn Shepherd, ACLU national, 212-519-7829 or 212-549-2666; media@aclu.org
Tom Hargis, ACLU of Texas, 832-291-4776; media@aclutx.org
Planned Parenthood Federation of America Media Office, 212-261-4433; media.office@ppfa.org
Kate Bernyk, Center for Reproductive Rights, 917-637-9697; kbernyk@reprorights.org
Court Protects Abortion Access for Most Women in Texas, But Partially Upholds Some Restrictions
Decision Upholds Restrictions on Medication Abortion
AUSTIN, Texas
After a three day trial, a federal court today permanently struck down one provision of a recently enacted law that would have made abortion services for one-third of women in Texas virtually impossible to access.
While U.S. District Court Judge Lee Yeakel blocked implementation of a requirement that all abortion providers obtain admitting privileges at a local hospital, today's ruling has allowed another harmful measure to take effect on October 29 that severely restricts the use of medication abortion, a safe and effective method to end an early pregnancy.
More than a dozen women's health care providers, who jointly filed suit last month on behalf of their patients, are currently considering options to protect women's health in face if this ruling. The providers who filed the lawsuit are represented by Planned Parenthood Federation of America, the Center for Reproductive Rights, the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Texas, and the firm George Brothers Kincaid & Horton.
"The court was right to strike the admitting privileges provision. It is unconstitutional and it would have shut down women's health centers throughout the state," said Louise Melling, deputy legal director of the ACLU. "We are disappointed by the ruling on the medication abortion restriction, which ignores accepted medical practice and will force providers to use less safe methods. But we will continue to fight and explore every option to protect women's health."
In blocking the law's admitting privileges requirement, today's court order protects access to abortion services for women living in vast stretches of Texas, including areas surrounding Ft. Worth, Harlingen, Killeen, Lubbock, McAllen, and Waco, where one-third of the state's licensed health centers would have had to immediately halt providing abortions if that part of the law were allowed to take effect.
As Judge Yeakel explained in his ruling, "admitting privileges have no rational relationship to improved patient care." They also place "an undue burden on a woman seeking an abortion."
By upholding the law's restrictions on medication abortion, physicians in Texas will now be forced to go against years of research and their professional experience by requiring most of their patients to follow an outdated and less effective protocol for medication abortion.
"Today's decision has averted a catastrophic health crisis for women across the state of Texas," said Nancy Northup, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights. "Politicians, not doctors, pushed for both of these unconstitutional restrictions--despite the best medical standards for women's health care. We are committed to standing with Texas health care providers and our partners in taking every necessary step ensure all women in Texas have the same rights and access to essential health care as women living in other states."
The provisions that were ruled on today were part of a package of legislation signed by Governor Rick Perry on July 18 following a series of special legislative sessions, but opposed by 80 percent of Texas voters, according to a poll by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research. Medical experts in Texas and across the country, including the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, Texas Medical Association, and Texas Hospital Association, also publicly opposed provisions in the law because they provide no medical benefit to women and will actually jeopardize women's health and safety.
"Today's ruling marks an important victory for Texas women and sends a clear message to lawmakers: it is unconstitutional for politicians to pass laws that take personal, private decisions away from women and their doctors. While this ruling protects access to safe and legal abortion for women in many parts of the state, it puts ideology over science by banning a safe method of abortion for many women," said Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America. "This kind of restriction on early abortion takes a personal, private decision away from women and their doctors. Planned Parenthood nurses and doctors are taking every step we can to ensure that women in Texas have access to the highest quality health care no matter where they live."
Courts have blocked similar provisions in other states across the country. Admitting privileges requirements aimed at shutting down all or most of the abortion providers in Alabama, Mississippi, North Dakota, and Wisconsin have been halted before they took effect. State courts in North Dakota and Oklahoma have permanently struck down unconstitutional restrictions on medication abortion.
For more information on this case, please visit: www.aclu.org/reproductive-freedom/planned-parenthood-v-abbott
The American Civil Liberties Union was founded in 1920 and is our nation's guardian of liberty. The ACLU works in the courts, legislatures and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to all people in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States.
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Guterres "is particularly concerned over the hundreds of Israeli airstrikes on several locations in Syria" and has stressed the "urgent need to de-escalate violence on all fronts throughout the country," said U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric.
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Addressing the assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson and conversations it has sparked about the country's for-profit system, longtime Medicare for All advocate Sen. Bernie Sanders on Wednesday condemned the murder and stressed that getting to universal coverage will require a movement challenging corporate money in politics.
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"The way we're going to bring about the kind of fundamental changes we need in healthcare is, in fact, by a political movement which understands the government has got to represent all of us, not just the 1%," the senator told Jacobin.
The 83-year-old Vermonter, who was just reelected to what he says is likely his last six-year term, is an Independent but caucuses with Democrats and sought their presidential nomination in 2016 and 2020. He has urged the Democratic Party to recognize why some working-class voters have abandoned it since Republicans won the White House and both chambers of Congress last month. A refusal to take on insurance and drug companies and overhaul the healthcare system, he argues, is one reason.
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In addition to highlighting Sanders' interview on social media, Congressman Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) pointed out to Business Insider on Wednesday that "you've got thousands of people that are sharing their stories of frustration" in the wake of Thompson's death.
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Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.)—a co-sponsor of Sanders' Medicare for All Act—similarly toldHuffPost in a Tuesday interview, "The visceral response from people across this country who feel cheated, ripped off, and threatened by the vile practices of their insurance companies should be a warning to everyone in the healthcare system."
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Reporters Without Borders' (RSF) 2024 roundup, which was published Thursday, found that at least 54 journalists were killed on the job or in connection with their work this year, and 18 of them were killed by Israeli armed forces (16 in Palestine, and two in Lebanon).
The organization has also filed four complaints with the International Criminal Court "for war crimes committed by the Israeli army against journalists," according to the roundup, which includes stats from January 1 through December 1.
"In Gaza, the scale of the tragedy is incomprehensible," wrote Thibaut Bruttin, director general of RSF, in the introduction to the report. Since October 2023, 145 journalists have been killed in Gaza, "including at least 35 who were very likely targeted or killed while working."
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When counting the number of journalists killed by the Israeli army since October 2023 in both Gaza and Lebanon, the tally comes to 155—"an unprecedented massacre," according to the roundup.
Multiple journalists were also killed in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Mexico, Sudan, Myanmar, Colombia, and Ukraine, according to the report, and hundreds more were detained and are now behind bars in countries including Israel, China, and Russia.
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