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Some Texas abortion clinics are already turning away patients even before the state’s tough new abortion law comes into effect at midnight.
As of mid-August, the 11 Planned Parenthood health centers in Texas that provide abortion services have stopped scheduling visits after September 1 for abortions beyond six weeks pregnant. Planned Parenthood’s decision was prompted by a law known as SB 8, which bans abortions in Texas as early as six weeks pregnant.
The vast majority of people who have abortions in Texas are at least six weeks pregnant. As a result, the law would ban nearly all abortions in the state, according to Planned Parenthood and Whole Woman’s Health.
But unlike other state’s anti-abortion laws, the Texas ban prohibits state officials from enforcing it and instead allows individuals to sue an abortion provider or anyone who may have helped someone. to have an abortion after the limit and to seek financial damages of up to $ 10,000 per defendant.
“Without relief, starting tomorrow, 7 million Texan women of childbearing age will no longer have access to abortion after six weeks of pregnancy, forcing those seeking to terminate their pregnancy to travel hundreds of miles outside. state to have an abortion, if they can afford it, ”said Alexis McGill Johnson, President and CEO of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America.
“This unconstitutional law is a large-scale attack on patients, their health care providers and their support systems,” she added.
The four Whole Woman’s Health clinics in Texas will also comply with the law and ban abortion at seven weeks or less depending on ultrasound results and if cardiac activity is detected. Amy Hagstrom Miller, CEO of Whole Woman’s Health and Whole Woman’s Health Alliance, said it was “remarkable” that the law was passed and is coming into effect.
“Texans, like everyone in this country, should be able to count on safe abortion care in their own state. No one should be forced to drive hundreds of miles or continue a pregnancy against their will, yet it is. is what will happen unless the Supreme Court steps in, ”Hagstrom Miller said.
The 19th first reported the movements of Planned Parenthood and Whole Woman’s Health.
A group of abortion rights advocates and providers, including Planned Parenthood and the Center for Reproductive Rights, filed an emergency request with the Supreme Court on Monday asking judges to block the law. The Supreme Court has not ruled on the case at the time of publication.
“The American people are eager to humanize our extreme and outdated abortion laws,” Marjorie Dannenfelser, chair of the anti-abortion group Susan B. Anthony List, said in a statement. “We stand with Texas and hope that soon the Court will finally free all states to protect the most vulnerable among us.”
If most or all abortion care in Texas were closed, the average one-way car distance to a clinic would be 20-fold, from 12 miles to 248 miles, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research organization. who studies reproductive health rights.
In April 2020, Texas temporarily banned abortion care amid the coronavirus pandemic to help preserve hospital space and personal protective equipment for Covid-19 patients. Meanwhile, Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains – which includes clinics in Colorado, New Mexico and Las Vegas – reported a 12-fold increase in the number of patients from Texas. Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains expects a significant influx of patients if the new law is implemented.
However, abortion rights advocates warn that not everyone will be able to cross state borders to get an abortion due to circumstantial difficulties such as not having access to a car or having access to a car. time off from work. The University of Texas at Austin’s Texas Policy Evaluation Project estimated that if the law comes into effect, about 80 percent of Texans who request an abortion could not get one in the state and 46 percent of Texans who request. an abortion might be forced to continue their pregnancies.
The ban “will also give impetus to other conservative states to pass identical laws,” said Elizabeth Nash, state policy analyst at the Guttmacher Institute.
“There are about 20 states that have already enacted full or early abortion bans, and those states will use Texas as a roadmap to ban abortion if they can,” Nash said.
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