The Fifth Circuit Rules In Favor Of Women’s Health and Life

planned parenthood tx

One of the most surreal factors in the Democrat talking point of “War on Women” is their reflexive support for abortion in all of its cruel and inhumane permutations.

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Earlier in the year a ditzy Texas state senator became a national cause celebre (see Abortion Rights Under Fire: Why Wendy Davis’ Filibuster Matters) when she undertook a filibuster of a Texas bill that, in reaction to the Kermit Gosnell case (see Tom Ridge: Unindicted Co-conspirator) made abortion practitioners at least pretend to be a part of the medical profession. The bill ultimately passed in a special session and was immediately appealed on two grounds by Planned Parenthood.

They objected on two basic grounds: that the requirement that the abortionist have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles and that the abortionist must be qualified in the field of obstetrics and gynecology, and that any use of the abortion pill be done according the protocol approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

They did not ask for an injunction based on the law requiring abortuaries meet the same physical specifications as urgent care clinics and it did not challenge the law outlawing any abortion after 20 weeks.

To a lay person these requirements leaves one scratching their head as to why anyone who cared in the least about the health of women could object. But Planned Parenthood is not in the women’s health business. They are in the business of killing babies, preferably those what are neither white nor affluent, and of collecting rent from various governmental entities for doing so.

On October 28, a federal judge granted their request for an injunction via a bizarrely reasoned decision that was notable for not mentioning Texas’ point of view or witnesses. Sean Davis pointed out at the time in a prescient analysis of this ruling titled 3 Reasons Why the Texas Abortion Ruling is a Complete Mess at The Federalist:

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Specifically, the judge ruled as unconstitutional the new state requirement that abortionists have hospital admitting privileges within 30 miles of their abortion clinics.

People can disagree about whether the outcome of the ruling is just, but it is difficult to read the judge’s ruling and come away believing it is anything other than a crime against logic.

Texas immediately appealed and, on October 31, in what may very well be the shortest injunction in the history of abortion litigation a panel of the Fifth Circuit vacated the injunction and allowed Texas to enforce its law. Again from Sean Davis in Federal Appeals Court Reinstates Major Portion of New Texas Abortion Law:

The major issue at stake was the constitutionality of a new state requirement that abortionists receive hospital admitting privileges at a hospital located no more than 30 miles from abortion facilities. In his ruling earlier this week, federal district court Judge Lee Yeakel declared that Texas had no rational basis for the hospital admitting privilege requirement and that the new requirement placed an undue and unconstitutional burden on women seeking an abortion.

The three-judge panel for the 5th Circuit disagreed with both the rational basis and undue burden findings of Yeakel.

Planned Parenthood has appealed to the US Supreme Court, but, if the 5th Circuit opinion is any guide, it will be an uphill battle to get the Supreme Court to address this on an emergency basis. If SCOTUS does not overturn the 5th Circuit, the impact will be significant:

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Opponents said that because many providers had been unable to obtain admitting privileges for their physicians, they would have to shut down services at about one-third of the facilities in the state and cut off access to a legal abortion for an estimated 22,000 women.

Hours after the decision from the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals last week, managers or employees of a dozen clinics from El Paso to Dallas to the Rio Grande Valley told Reuters their facilities had stopped providing abortions. Several said they were still trying to gain admitting privileges for their physicians.

One has to wonder why their doctors could not get admitting privileges, in fact, it would seem that if Planned Parenthood really cared about its clientele it would be asking itself the same question.

Women in Texas now are safer than they were before this law was passed. It is no longer possible for an abortionist to get rid of a “problem” by calling an ambulance and sending her to an emergency room while turning to his next patient and next victim.

 

 

 

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