August 27, 2014 12:27 PM

Ruling on Texas abortion law could come as soon as today

Federal judge has demanded data, not anecdotes, on access to procedure

US District Judge Lee Yeakel could issue a ruling on the challenge to Texas’ new abortion law as early as today, opening the door to one more appeal before the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans.

On Tuesday, parties that have challenged the Texas law noted the convergence of challenges to it. In Alabama and Mississippi, the Center for Reproductive Rights has seen some narrow wins. New rulings are expected out of Texas and Wisconsin this week. And new requirements go into effect in Louisiana and Texas next week and in Oklahoma in November.

Abortion clinics in Texas, represented in part by attorneys from the Center for Reproductive Rights, have brought two of the three likely challenges to the law: Hospital admitting privileges for physicians who perform abortions and the requirement to upgrade clinics to ambulatory surgical centers. The last expected challenge would be to the 20-week cut-off for the performance of procedural abortions.

The challenge before Yeakel, filed by Whole Woman’s Health, is narrowed to the legal concept of “undue burden” on women but only in specific areas of the state. If the requirement of ambulatory surgical centers is upheld in Texas, the number of abortion clinics would drop drastically to probably no more than eight or nine across the state. Yeakel’s primary directive to lawyers was to argue whether such requirements would put an undue burden on women who are hours from a clinic, in the Rio Grande Valley or El Paso.

By Kimberly Reeves