The state seems poised to pass Texas-style restrictions that will likely shutter clinics, opponents say
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Louisiana House passes sweeping abortion restrictions in the name of women’s “safety”
Showing posts with label Restrictions. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Restrictions. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 1, 2014
Louisiana House passes sweeping abortion restrictions in the name of women’s “safety”
Louisiana House passes sweeping abortion restrictions in the name of women’s “safety”
Tuesday, November 12, 2013
Tsarnaev’s lawyers demand communication restrictions be lifted
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Tsarnaev’s lawyers demand communication restrictions be lifted
Saturday, July 13, 2013
Texas Senate passes new abortion restrictions
Anti-abortion rights supporter Katherine Aguilar holds a crucifix and prays while opponents and supporters of abortion rights gather in the State Capitol rotunda in Austin, Texas on Friday, July 12, 2013. The Texas Senate convened Friday afternoon to debate and ultimately vote on some of the nation’s toughest abortion restrictions, its actions being watched by fervent demonstrators on either side of the issue. (AP Photo/Tamir Kalifa)
Anti-abortion rights supporter Katherine Aguilar holds a crucifix and prays while opponents and supporters of abortion rights gather in the State Capitol rotunda in Austin, Texas on Friday, July 12, 2013. The Texas Senate convened Friday afternoon to debate and ultimately vote on some of the nation’s toughest abortion restrictions, its actions being watched by fervent demonstrators on either side of the issue. (AP Photo/Tamir Kalifa)
Abortion rights advocates fill the rotunda of the State Capitol as the Senate nears the vote on Friday night, July 12, 2013. Texas senators were wrapping up debate on sweeping abortion restrictions Friday night and were poised to vote on a measure after weeks of protests. (AP Photo/Tamir Kalifa)
Abortion rights supporters rally on the floor of the State Capitol rotunda in Austin, Texas on Friday, July 12, 2013. The Texas Senate convened Friday afternoon to debate and ultimately vote on some of the nation’s toughest abortion restrictions, its actions being watched by fervent demonstrators on either side of the issue. (AP Photo/Tamir Kalifa)
Opponents and supporters of abortion rights rally in the State Capitol rotunda in Austin, Texas on Friday, July 12, 2013. The Texas Senate convened Friday afternoon to debate and ultimately vote on some of the nation’s toughest abortion restrictions, its actions being watched by fervent demonstrators on either side of the issue. (AP Photo/Tamir Kalifa)
Pro-abortion rights protesters are removed from the Texas Senate gallery by Texas state troopers as the Senate debates an abortion bill, Friday, July 12, 2013, in Austin, Texas. The bill would require doctors to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals, only allow abortions in surgical centers, dictate when abortion pills are taken and ban abortions after 20 weeks. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
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AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The Texas Senate passed sweeping new abortion restrictions late Friday, sending them to Republican Gov. Rick Perry to sign into law after weeks of protests and rallies that drew thousands of people to the Capitol and made the state the focus of the national abortion debate.
Republicans used their large majority in the Texas Legislature to pass the bill nearly three weeks after a filibuster by Democratic Sen. Wendy Davis and an outburst by abortion-rights activists in the Senate gallery disrupted a deadline vote June 25.
Called back for a new special session by Perry, lawmakers took up the bill again as thousands of supporters and opponents held rallies and jammed the Capitol to testify at public hearings. As the Senate took its final vote, protesters in the hallway outside the chamber chanted, “Shame! Shame! Shame!”
Democrats have called the GOP proposal unnecessary and unconstitutional. Republicans said the measure was about protecting women and unborn children.
House Bill 2 would require doctors to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals, allow abortions only in surgical centers, limit where and when women may take abortion-inducing pills and ban abortions after 20 weeks.
Abortion-rights supporters say the bill will close all but five abortion clinics in Texas, leaving large areas of the vast state without abortion services. Only five out of 42 existing abortion clinics meet the requirements to be a surgical center, and clinic owners say they can’t afford to upgrade or relocate.
The circus-like atmosphere in the Texas Capitol marked the culmination of weeks of protests, the most dramatic of which came June 25 in the final minutes of the last special legislative session, Davis’ filibuster and subsequent protest prevented the bill from becoming law.
The Senate’s debate took place between a packed gallery of demonstrators, with anti-abortion activists wearing blue and abortion-rights supporters wearing orange. Security was tight, and state troopers reported confiscating bottles of urine and feces as they worked to prevent another attempt to stop the Republican majority from passing the proposal.
Those arrested or removed from the chamber included four women who tried to chain themselves to a railing in the gallery. One of the women was successful in chaining herself, prompting a 10-minute recess.
When debate resumed, protesters began loudly singing, “Give choice a chance. All we are saying is give choice a chance.” The Senate’s leader, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, told officers to remove them.
Sen. Glen Hegar of Katy, the bill’s Republican author, argued that all abortions, including those induced with medications, should take place in an ambulatory surgical center in case of complications.
Democrats pointed out that childbirth is more dangerous than an abortion and there have been no serious problems with women taking abortion drugs at home. They introduced amendments to add exceptions for cases of rape and incest and to remove some of the more restrictive clauses, but Republicans dismissed all of the proposed changes.
Sen. Royce West, a Dallas Democrat, asked why Hegar was pushing restrictions that federal courts in other states had suspended as possibly unconstitutional.
“There will be a lawsuit. I promise you,” West said, raising his right hand as if taking an oath.
The bill mirrors restrictions passed in Mississippi, Ohio, Oklahoma, Alabama, Kansas, Wisconsin and Arizona. In North Carolina, lawmakers are considering a measure that would allow state health officials to apply standards for ambulatory surgical centers to abortion clinics.
Passing the law in Texas would be a major victory for anti-abortion activists in the nation’s second most-populous state. A lawsuit originating in Texas would also likely win a sympathetic hearing at the conservative 5th Circuit Court of Appeals on its way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
But Democrats see in the protests an opportunity that could help them break a 20-year statewide losing streak. They believe Republicans have overreached in trying to appease their base and alienated suburban women, a constituency that helped President Barack Obama win re-election.
“In the long run, all they have done is built a committed group of people across this state who are outraged about the treatment of women and the lengths to which this Legislature will go to take women’s health care away,” Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards told The Associated Press in an interview Friday.
Sen. John Whitmire, a Houston Democrat, said during the debate that it was clear the bill was part of national conservative agenda attempting to ban abortion and infringe on women’s rights one state at a time. He pressed Hegar on why the Texas Medical Association, Texas Hospital Association and the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology opposed the bill.
He asked Hegar how he could ignore these experts.
“There are differences in the medical profession,” Hegar insisted, rejecting the criticism. “I don’t believe this legislation will majorly impede the doctor-patient relationship.”
Sen. Bob Deuell, a Greenville Republican and a doctor, defended the bill, saying abortion clinics “had not maintained the proper standard of care.”
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Associated Press writers Will Weissert and Jim Vertuno contributed to this report. Follow Chris Tomlinson on Twitter at http://twitter.com/cltomlinson
Texas Senate passes new abortion restrictions
Tuesday, July 9, 2013
Texas House nears vote on proposed abortion restrictions
1 of 6. Texas Republican State Senator Glenn Hegar, one of the sponsor of the abortion bill SB1, speaks during an anti-abortion rally at the State Capitol in Austin, Texas, July 8, 2013.
Credit: Reuters/Mike Stone
AUSTIN, Texas |
AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) – Thousands of supporters and opponents of abortion rights converged on the Texas Capitol on Monday for hours of protests as the state House of Representatives prepares to debate the proposed abortion restrictions on Tuesday.
The state House could vote on the bill as early as Tuesday, two weeks after Democratic state Senator Wendy Davis filibustered for 11 hours to prevent passage of the legislation. Davis’s tactic forced Republicans to start over in the state legislature their effort to pass a ban on most abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy and toughen regulations for abortion clinics.
On Monday evening blue-clad supporters of the legislation – including former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee and Michelle Duggar of the reality TV show “19 Kids and Counting” – crowded outside the statehouse chanting, “Pass the bill!” and praying.
“Our battle, ladies and gentlemen, is not between Republicans and Democrats,” Robert Jeffress, senior pastor of the First Baptist Church in Dallas, told the crowd. “The battle is between light and darkness, between good and evil, between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan, and it is a battle we are going to win.”
As the anti-abortion demonstration wrapped up, abortion-rights advocates dressed in orange marched past the governor’s mansion to the state Capitol chanting “Whose choice? Our choice!”
Meanwhile, the Senate Committee on Health and Human Services saw more than 3,800 people testify or register their position on the bill, according to committee Chairwoman Jane Nelson.
The Senate panel was not expected to vote on the measure Monday evening.
The proposed ban on most abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy – a version of which has passed in 12 states – is based on controversial medical research that suggests a fetus starts to feel pain at that point.
“Are we willing to take even a chance that a baby being aborted is suffering?” bill supporter Senator Bob Deuell, a Republican and a doctor, said at the hearing.
Planned Parenthood has said that the Texas measure could lead to the closure of all but six of the state’s 42 abortion facilities, but the author of the Texas House bill, Representative Jodie Laubenberg, has said that assertion is an exaggeration.
Amy Hagstrom Miller, president and CEO of Whole Woman’s Health, which operates abortion clinics, told senators that abortion facilities in Texas are already licensed, inspected and highly regulated.
The proposed requirements “would not improve care but rather reduce access for women in Texas and put more women at risk for later-term abortions or for illicit abortions outside the medical community,” she said during the hearing.
Last week, three states in addition to Texas took steps toward imposing new abortion restrictions.
Republican Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker signed into law a measure requiring doctors performing abortions to have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital and requiring women seeking an abortion to have an ultrasound. A federal judge on Monday temporarily blocked a portion of that law.
Republican Ohio Governor John Kasich signed a budget that included abortion restrictions, and the North Carolina Senate passed some limits on the procedure.
(Additional reporting by Jonathan Allen and Jim Forsyth; Editing by Greg McCune, Eric Walsh and Lisa Shumaker)
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Texas House nears vote on proposed abortion restrictions
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