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Abortion Restrictions In Texas

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Texas squeezes abortion clinics almost entirely out of the state. We'll look at the Texas crackdown on abortion.

A man walks past the former site of a clinic that offered abortions in El Paso, Texas, Friday, Oct. 3, 2014. (Juan Carlos Llorca/AP)
A man walks past the former site of a clinic that offered abortions in El Paso, Texas, Friday, Oct. 3, 2014. (AP)

Texas is closing down abortion. In 2013, a new Texas law raised stiff new requirements for clinics. A Federal district judge struck it down as a, quote: “brutally effective system of abortion regulation” intended “to reduce the number of providers licensed to perform abortions.” On Tuesday, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans brought it back. Largely let the law stand. It would put 17 percent of women of childbearing age in Texas more than 150 miles from a clinic. Is that an “undue burden”? This hour On Point: abortion, Texas, and a national test.
-- Tom Ashbrook

Guests

Carrie Feibel, health and science reporter for Houston Public Media. (@carriefeibel)

Heather Busby, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Texas.

B. Jessie Hill, associate dean for faculty development and research at the Case Western University. Former staffer the ACLU's Reproductive Freedom Project in New York.

Joseph Pojman, founder and executive director of the Texas Alliance for Life. (@joepojman)

Joanne Kenen, health care editor for POLITICO. (@joannekenen)

From Tom’s Reading List

Houston Chronicle: Supreme Court may be next stop for Texas abortion law — "A federal appeals court gave its long-expected stamp of approval Tuesday to the Texas Legislature's sweeping 2013 anti-abortion law, leaving the U.S. Supreme Court as the last option for opponents of some of the nation's tightest restrictions on the procedure."

Washington Post: Appeals court upholds abortion restrictions in Texas -- "Federal appeals judges on Tuesday upheld a Texas law requiring nearly all facilities that provide abortions in the state to meet hospital-like standards, a ruling that could leave only a handful open. A three-judge panel of the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the state’s requirement that abortion clinics meet ambulatory surgical center standards — which include minimum sizes for rooms and doorways, pipelines for anesthesia and other infrastructure — did not impose an undue burden on a “large faction” of Texas women seeking abortions."

Los Angeles Times: Controversial Texas abortion law upheld by federal appeals court -- "The bill banned nearly all abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy, except in cases of rape or incest with a minor. It also required that abortion-inducing drugs be administered in the presence of a doctor, which required most patients to visit clinics on three separate occasions."

This program aired on June 11, 2015.

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