ACLU, Planned Parenthood, and Center for Reproductive Rights in Court to Block Law That Would Prevent Thousands of Women from Obtaining Abortion Care
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Robyn Shepherd, ACLU national, 212-519-7829 or 549-2666; [email protected]
Tom Hargis, ACLU of Texas, 832-291-4776; [email protected]
Kate Bernyk, Center for Reproductive Rights, 917-637-3637; [email protected]
Planned Parenthood Federation of America, 212-261-4433; [email protected]
AUSTIN, Texas – A federal district court today held a trial in a case filed last month against a state law that would prevent more than 22,000 women each year from obtaining safe and legal abortion care. The lawsuit was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Texas, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, and the Center for Reproductive Rights on behalf of more than a dozen women’s health care providers.
“If this law is allowed to take effect it will have a devastating effect on women throughout the state. In Texas and across the country politicians are trying to prevent women from accessing safe and legal abortion, and it must stop,” said Brigitte Amiri, senior staff attorney with the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project. “
The provisions being challenged in court today require abortion providers to unnecessarily obtain admitting privileges at a local hospital, and they severely restrict the use of medication abortion. The admitting privileges requirement could force at least one-third of the state’s licensed health centers that provide abortion to stop providing that service. No other medical professionals are required to have admitting privileges.
“This bill was intended from the start to limit women’s medical options rather than promote women’s health,” said Terri Burke, executive director of the ACLU of Texas. “The people of Texas opposed this law as a political tool that insulted the intelligence and undermined the well-being of women and their families, and the courts should make sure that the law is never allowed to take effect.”
For more information on this case, please visit: www.aclu.org/reproductive-freedom/planned-parenthood-v-abbott
