A federal appeals court will take another look at the Texas law that caused more than one-third of abortion clinics to close their doors statewide.
A three-judge panel of the 5th United States Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans will hear an appeal on Monday that's being brought forth by Planned Parenthood, along with a handful of other abortion rights activists, according to the Dallas Daily News.
The panel, which reportedly is comprised of three conservative justices, will hear arguments from advocates alleging that the abortion bill is unconstitutional, due it its extraneous burden on women's access to pregnancy termination, the Associated Press reported. The court has already released a ruling in favor of the state, ahead of the hearing.
Planned Parenthood took the appeals to the high court based on two facets of the bill: the first demands that doctors who offer abortion services have admitting rights at hospitals nearby, while the second scales back significantly the doctor's ability to authorize and provide abortion-inducing drugs. Medical officials must follow rules set by the United States Food and Drug Administration 14 years ago for medication that induces labor. According to the Daily News, clinical trials performed since 2000 indicate that doctors should use lower dosages to avoid serious side effects. But Texas legislation bars medical authorities from employing the new procedures for the drug.
While the Court of Appeals weighs the options and hears the arguments, Texas clinics have been ordered to follow the law, which was put in place during the interim. Because doctors at 12 of the state's 34 abortion clinics could not obtain admitting rights, they were forced to shut the doors on their practices.
In their previous argument, advocacy groups argued that the law, "does not serve the health of women in Texas, but instead jeopardizes women's health by restricting access to abortion providers and denying women well-researched, safe, evidence-based and proven protocols for...medical abortion."
But for Governor Rick Perry, who signed the bill into law, thus creating some of the most sweeping abortion restrictions nationwide, said this piece of legislation would actually protect women.
"This is good news both for the unborn and for the women of Texas, who are now better protected from shoddy abortion providers operating in dangerous conditions," he said. "As always, Texas will continue doing everything we can to protect the culture of life in our state."
