A pro-abortion group has announced a second legal challenge to the new abortion restricting law in Texas.
The pro-abortion Center for Reproductive Rights announced a new lawsuit Wednesday attacking the provision in the law which requires all abortions take place in facilities that meet the standards of ambulatory surgical centers.
According to the group, that provision would cull the remaining abortion clinics in state down significantly.
“If these legislative attacks on women’s health care continue to take effect, fewer than 10 clinics will be available to provide abortion care to Texas’s 13 million women. Many women will suddenly face a round trip as far as 1,000 miles from their homes to obtain abortion care in their own state,” Nancy Northup, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights, said.
Currently, the Associated Press reports, there are 24 abortion clinics in the state. The ambulatory surgical center standards take effect on Sept. 1.
The group’s suit also seeks to block the law’s requirement — which was upheld by a federal court last week — that abortionists had admitting privileges at nearby hospitals.
The Center for Reproductive Rights filed the suit on behalf of abortion clinics in the state that have struggled to meet the new standards.
Pro-abortion groups have been fighting the new restrictions in court since they passed last year. One provision that has gone without a challenge to date is the 20-week ban on abortions.
The Center for Reproductive Right’s suit is the second legal challenge.
“We filed this lawsuit to stop the second-largest state in the nation from plunging millions of women back into the darkness and grave danger of illegal abortion that Roe v. Wade was supposed to end,” Northup said.
Pro-life organizations and lawmakers have argued that the new standards are intended to protect the safety of the mother and unborn who are believed to feel pain by 20 weeks.