Texans — especially Texas women — today can breathe a temporary sigh of collective relief, knowing the ultimately U.S. law still works as it should — despite the best efforts of Rick Perry and the Republican Party.
LOOK:Â Texas GOP Just Made It Almost Impossible For A Woman To Have A Legal Abortion
A federal judge has just ruled that the abortion law Governor Rick Perry forced the Texas state legislature into a special session to pass is indeed unconstitutional. The law, which Texas state senator Wendy Davis successfully filibustered for over eleven hours, was scheduled to go into effect tomorrow. Davis’ filibuster led one Texas lawmaker to call her (or pro-choice activists) a “terrorist.” Davis recently announced she is running for governor.
The bill itself “would ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy, require abortion clinics to meet the same standards that hospital-style surgical centers do, and mandate that a doctor who performs abortions have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital,” the New York Times described back in June.
LOOK: Look: Thousands Of Texans Rally To Support Women’s Abortion Rights And Wendy Davis
Federal District Judge Lee Yeakel’s “order will block the enforcement of a part of the law [that] required abortion doctors to have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital,” the Atlantic reports:
Some unchallenged portions of the law, including the 20-week ban, will still go into effect on Tuesday,while other portions, such as a requirement that all abortions take place in an ambulatory surgical center, aren’t yet scheduled to go into effect anyway. Monday’s decision by District Judge Lee Yeakel (who, fun fact, was appointed by George W. Bush) was in response to a suit brought by Planned Parenthood and other pro-choice groups in the state, focusing on two of the medical restrictions imposed by the law. First, a requirement that abortion-providing clinics have admitting privileges to a hospital within 30 miles. And second, a series of restrictions on drug-induced abortions.
The admitting privileges provision alone would have forced the closure of at least a third of the state’s clinics. One clinic representative testified at the trial, for instance, that many hospitals in the state are refusing to take applications from abortion doctors for admitting privileges.
Today, Yeakel ruled that “the regulations violated the rights of abortion doctors to do what they think is best for their patients and would unreasonably restrict a woman’s access to abortion clinics,” the Huffington Post reports.
The Texas attorney general’s office argued that the law protects women and the life of the fetus. Attorney General Greg Abbott was expected to file an emergency appeal of Yeakel’s order to the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans.
Mississippi passed a similar law last year, which a federal judge also blocked pending a trial scheduled to begin in March. Mississippi’s attorney general asked the 5th Circuit to lift the temporary injunction so the law could be enforced, but the judges have left it in place signaling they believe there is a legitimate constitutional question.
Unlike the Mississippi case, Yeakel’s order is a final decision, setting the groundwork for the 5th Circuit to review the merits of the law, not just an injunction against it.
Texas’ anti-abortion law was among the most stringent in the nation. A federal review of the merits of the law theoretically could reach the Supreme Court.
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Image by Katie via Instagram
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