Here's What Texas' Disputed Abortion Law Has Been Doing to Clinics
Mother Jones
Here's What Texas' Disputed Abortion Law Has Been Doing to Clinics
As a September 1 deadline looms, nearly all of Texas's 41 clinics have shut their doors—and a few are still fighting to stay open.
—By Hannah Levintova and Kristine Stolakis
Thu Aug. 28, 2014
Update (8/29/14): Judge Lee Yeakel of the US District Court in Austin blocked a key provision of HB 2 today. This portion of the law, which required abortion clinics to meet the standards of hospital-like ambulatory surgical centers, was set to go into effect Monday, September 1.
The state of Texas has already announced it will appeal Judge Yeakel's decision to the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans. This past March, the Fifth Circuit upheld a different provision of HB 2, reversing a block on the rule also issued by Yeakel.
At the new Planned Parenthood clinic in Dallas earlier this month, exam rooms were stocked, desks, chairs, and computers were installed, and even a few phones had started to ring. Construction workers came in and out, and the waiting room stood empty, save for a corner stack of moving boxes...
...This facility, a preexisting ambulatory surgical center that Planned Parenthood purchased and refurbished, will cost the organization $6.1 million. It's an unexpected bill they've spent months fundraising to cover, because a year ago, Planned Parenthood had no plans for a new Dallas facility: A different clinic already provided safe, legal abortions and vasectomies to patients....
MORE at http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/08/texas-wendy-davis-sb5-abortion-surgical-center
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