The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has blessed two new controversial abortion statutes in Texas, most notably by finding that there was a “rational basis” for a measure the plaintiffs warn will close one-third of the state’s abortion clinics and prevent access to the procedure for thousands of women according to a March 27 decision.
The law, H.B. 2, was passed in 2013 by the Texas Legislature. It contained two provisions that Planned Parenthood and other plaintiffs contend are unconstitutional. The first requires that a physician performing an abortion have admitting privileges at a hospital no more than 30 miles from the location where the abortion is provided. The second mandates that the administration of abortion-inducing drugs comply with the protocol authorized by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
