Appeals Court Upholds Tex. Restrictions on Abortion Clinics

A federal appeals court ruled Thursday that a Texas law that abortion-rights advocates say has forced nearly half the state’s abortion clinics to shut down does not place an undue burden on women seeking to end pregnancies, reports the Associated Press.

The measure, which Planned Parenthood is fighting in court, mandates that abortion doctors have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital and limits their ability to prescribe abortion-inducing pills. At least 19 of the state’s abortion clinics have closed since the law took effect. About 24 are still operating, but pro-choice groups say the law leaves women in huge swaths of the state without reproductive-health options.

The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans said the law “does not impose an undue burden on the life and health of a woman,” overturning a lower-court ruling that the restrictions unconstitutionally jeopardize women’s access to abortion. The burden of the restriction “does not fall on the vast majority of Texas women,” the three-judge panel said. The case is likely to end up before the U.S. Supreme Court.