Federal judge voids key piece of Texas abortion law

A federal judge Friday struck down a major provision of Texas's strict abortion law that would have forced all but a handful of clinics to close next week.

The law, passed last year by the Republican legislature, required abortion facilities to meet hospital-level building standards. But U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel ruled the requirements violated a woman's right to terminate her pregnancy.

"The ambulatory-surgical-center requirement is unconstitutional because it imposes an undue burden on the right of women throughout Texas to seek a previabilty abortion," Yeakel wrote in a lawsuit brought by the Center for Reproductive Rights on behalf of abortion providers.

He blocked the provisions from taking effect Monday. The law regulated the sizes of rooms and doorways, and required pipelines for anesthesia.

The Texas Tribunenoted that six abortion clinics, all in big cities, meet the requirements.

Currently, there are 19 clinics in Texas, down from 40 before bill became law.

"This trial and today's decision have stripped away the pretexts of the politicians who passed this law and revealed their true intention to deny Texas women access to safe, legal abortion care," said Nancy Northup, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights.

"The court has made clear that women's well-being is not advanced by laws attacking access to essential health care, and that rights protected by the U.S. Constitution may not be denied through laws that make them impossible to exercise."

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, a Republican who could succeed Gov. Rick Perry, will appeal.

"The State disagrees with the court's ruling and will seek immediate relief from the Fifth Circuit, which has already upheld" the law after another decision by Yaekel, an Abbott spokeswoman said.

In March, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals overruled Yaekel's opinion last fall in a lawsuit brought by Planned Parenthood and several other abortion providers. The three-judge panel said the state had not violated the U.S. Constitution by requiring abortion doctors to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals or by restricting abortion-inducing drugs.

The rulings increase the chances that the U.S. Supreme Court will revisit the abortion guarantees provided in the landmark 1973 decision Roe v. Wade.