Federal Court Upholds Texas Attack on Women's Right to Choose

A federal appeals court on Thursday upheld controversial portions of a Texas law that reproductive rights groups and civil liberty advocates say strips women of their constitutional right to have an abortion while restricting access to other health services across the state.

The ruling, made by the 3-judge panel of New Orleans-based 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, upholds the portion of the law known as HB2, passed by the Texas legislature last year amid loud protest from women across the state, that requires doctors who provide abortions to obtain admitting privileges at a local hospital.

This requirement, however, directly harms women’s health and interferes with the doctor-patient relationship, according to leading medical associations like the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) and the American Medical Association (AMA). As the ACLU points out, no other set of medical professionals in the state are required to have admitting privileges.

Moreover, say pro-choice groups, the rule infringes on the constitutionally protected right to have an abortion by stripping access to care and services that would otherwise exist.

“The Fifth Circuit has turned a blind eye to the very real and devastating consequences that this law has had on thousands of Texas women, erecting barriers to abortion so high that women are simply left with no legal or safe options,” said Nancy Northup, president and CEO at the Center for Reproductive Rights. “Right now, the state of Texas is gutting the constitutional protections afforded by Roe v. Wade more than 40 years ago, leaving large swaths of Texas left without a provider.”

And Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood, shared that sentiment and said the state’s most vulnerable would suffer the most. She said: “The women who will be most impacted by this ruling have already lost access to birth control and preventive health care because of reckless decisions by politicians over the last several years. The latest restrictions in Texas will force women to have abortions later in pregnancy, if they are able to get to a doctor at all.”

Representatives from the ACLU, which along with other plaintiffs representing clinicians and providers challenged the law in court which led to Thursday’s ruling, called the decision an affront to women and constitutional guarantees.