Judge Halts Texas Abortion Law Targeting Clinics

A federal judge today threw out new Texas abortion restrictions that would have effectively closed more than a dozen clinics in the state. US District Judge Lee Yeakel sided with clinics that sued over one of the most disputed measures of a sweeping anti-abortion bill signed by Gov. Rick Perry in 2013. The ruling stops new restrictions that would have left seven abortion facilities in Texas by Sept. 1. There are currently 19 abortion providers in the state, according to groups challenging the law. "The overall effect of the provisions is to create an impermissible obstacle as applied to all women seeking a previability abortion," Yeakel wrote in his 21-page ruling.

The trial in Texas was the latest battle over tough new abortion restrictions sweeping across the US. Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, a Republican who is the favorite to become governor next year, was expected to appeal. 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 the Roe v. Wade ruling by the US Supreme Court in 1973. (Perry said his wife misspoke when siding with "a woman's right" to choose abortion.)