A Federal judge has ruled that because a majority of abortion clinic providers refused to make changes to their clinics as required by a Texas law and thus would have to close, the law is unconstitutional.
District Judge Lee Yeakel, who had previously ruled against the law in a case that was quickly overturned by an appeals court, said that requiring clinics to widen doors so paramedics could bring in a stretcher for a woman in distress is “too costly for abortion clinic owners” and therefore puts an undue burden on women wanting to kill their baby via abortion.
“The court concludes that the act’s [House Bill 2] ambulatory surgical center requirement, combined with the already-in-effect admitting privileges requirement, creates a brutally effective system of abortion regulation that reduces accesses to abortion clinics, thereby creating a statewide burden for a substantial number of Texas women,” Yeakel wrote.
The clinics had a year to bring their clinics up to the new standards but some abortion providers just refused to make the changes. That did not matter to the judge.
Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott said the state will appeal the decision.
Abortionists have filed a lawsuit against the state of Louisiana over a law that the claim will force them to close.
HB 388 passed the Louisiana House of Representatives 88-5 and the Senate 34-3. The bill would require abortionists to obtain admitting privileges if a woman is injured during an abortion and require further medical care.
“On the date the abortion is performed or induced, a physician performing or inducing an abortion shall have active admitting privileges at a hospital that is located not further than thirty miles from the location at which the abortion is performed or induced and that provides obstetrical or gynecological health care services,” the bill reads.
The lawsuit claims that there is not a sufficient amount of time from the passage of the law until it goes into effect for the clinics to obtain the approvals necessary to stay open after September 1st.
Laws similar to the Louisiana law have been upheld in most other states including Texas, where at the end of 2014 it’s predicted only 6 of 41 abortion clinics will remain open.
A judge has ordered an infamous abortionist to close his clinic.
Martin Haskell, a notorious late-term abortionist, was ordered to close his Lebanon Road Surgery Center because it would not comply with state health regulations. The initial order to close the clinic was issued at the end of last year but had been delayed because of litigation.
“We are gratified to see yet another late-term abortionist shutting down,” said Mike Gonidakis, Ohio Right to Life president and member of the state medical board. “As a result of this Health Department order, Martin Haskell, a strong proponent and former practitioner of the controversial and deadly partial-birth abortion procedure, will no longer be able to abort children and jeopardize women’s health in Hamilton County.”
The order to finally close the clinic was issued by Democratic state judge Jerry Metz who said all the previous orders by state officials and judges to close the clinic were legally valid.
Haskell’s wife has been attempting to keep the clinic open by appealing to Christians, saying the Bible endorses the killing of children through abortion, despite ample evidence to the contrary.
The state of Ohio has been carrying out a crackdown on abortion clinics.
Two of the clinics are at risk of losing their licenses to end babies’ lives. Northeast Ohio Women’s Center in Cuyahoga Falls and Capital Care Network of Toledo have been recommended to lose their licenses by the Ohio Department of Health. If the clinics do not contest the action by the ODH, they would have to close August 12th.
A Planned Parenthood office in Bedford Heights was fined $25,000 after a March inspection of the facility.
“One of the reasons Planned Parenthood was fined is because the facility was improperly storing containers of human tissue, which brings the name of notorious abortionist Kermit Gosnell to mind,” Katherine McCann of Ohio Right To Life told the Christian Post. “Another was because of improper follow-up documentation for two abortion patients who were hospitalized for bleeding and a perforated uterus. How is any of this ‘healthcare’? The real war on women is being waged by Ohio’s abortion facilities.”
McCann said that the crackdown is part of actions taken by the state’s governor to hold clinics accountable for unsanitary conditions.
“Before Governor Kasich’s administration, it was a struggle to ensure that Ohio’s abortion facilities were being held to common-sense health and safety standards. That’s really what we’re talking about here, common-sense standards,” said McCann. “ODH isn’t holding these facilities to extra special standards — any inspection a clinic undergoes is in line with the Ohio Revised Code. But Ohio’s abortion industry can’t even meet these basic requirements. Thankfully, for the last four years, abortion mills haven’t been allowed to skirt the law like they used to.”
A major abortion facility in Austin, Texas closed last week as a result of the pro-woman legislation that was passed last year.
Whole Woman’s Health of Austin, which has been ending the lives of babies via abortion for over ten years, announced the immediate closure of the facility. The abortionists said they had to close because of House Bill 2.
“House Bill 2 … has forced us into yet another closure, this time because we’re unable to meet the standards of an ambulatory surgical center at this location,” a statement read.
The closing of the center comes two years after the center was fined $22,000 by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality for dumping babies killed at the facility in a landfill.
A report from the University of Texas at Austin says the number of babies in Texas who have died from abortion has fallen 13% over the last year.
Massachusetts lawmakers passed a new law to restrict pro-life protesters who would be outside an abortion clinic after the Supreme Court struck down their previous law.
The new law, which is titled An Act to Promote Public Safety and Protect Access to Reproductive Health Care Facilities”, will now allow police to break up any protest that the police say are “impeding access” to an abortion clinic and then ban anyone at the protest from being within 25 feet of a clinic for 8 hours.
The governor said he was “proud to sign” the bill that can allow police to bully those who believe in the value of life.
The law will be challenged in court by pro-life groups.
“We are deeply disturbed at this legislature’s efforts to silence the voices of those they disagree with. We thank those legislators who voted against this new legislation, and we will closely monitor how this law is being carried out,” stated Massachusetts Citizens For Life. “Rest assured that Massachusetts Citizens For Life will be doing everything in its power to ensure that the voices of pro-life individuals are protected.”
A Mississippi law that would have shut down the state last abortion clinic was ruled unconstitutional by a federal court even though it had the same provisions as other states where the constitutionality was upheld.
A three judge panel with the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans ruled that the law was unconstitutional because it would mean women would need to travel to another state to kill their babies via abortion. That, the court said, would cause an “undue burden” on the women who wanted to end their child’s life.
The court also said the state is “obligated” to uphold the “right” for women to kill their babies via abortion.
The Mississippi law was modeled on a Texas law that requires all abortion clinics to have abortionists with admitting privileges at a local hospital should a complication arise during the procedure. All hospitals in the area of the Jackson Women’s Health Organization had refused to work with the abortionists.
The judge who dissented in the case said states are not required by the Constitution to provide abortion clinics, but rather to ensure the safety of anyone that wanted to operate a clinic within their state.
Notorious late-term abortionist Dennis Christensen of Wisconsin is trying to find a replacement for him at his clinic as a law that is on hold because of a judge threatens to put his clinic out of business.
The law, passed by the Wisconsin legislature 2013 and signed by Governor Scott Walker, would require all doctors who end babies lives via abortion to have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of their abortion clinic. The law has been on hold because of U.S. District Judge William Conley pending a decision in the challenge to the law.
Christensen says that he and his partner Bernard Smith have been denied privileges at all the hospitals within 30 miles of their clinic, Affiliated Medical Services of Milwaukee. Should the judge refuse to strike down the law, the clinic would be forced to immediately close.
Christiansen says that he’s been turned down because he hasn’t treated an abortion patient in a hospital setting in over a decade. He told a judge that because his patients haven’t been in the hospital, it’s been a detriment to his gain privileges.
However, pro-life organization 40 Days for Life says the abortionist was lying to the judge. They have been tracking ambulance calls and say that nine times there were calls from the clinic. Four of the women who were then rushed to a hospital had to have emergency hysterectomies that they blame on the abortionist.
Christiansen’s other clinic in Illinois was shut down because the surgical equipment was sanitized and conditions were considered “not to be a sanitary environment.”
Northern Alabama will be without any abortion clinics as of June 27th.
Alabama Women’s Center is voluntarily shutting its doors because they cannot meet the requirements of the state’s new abortion law which goes into effect on July 1.
The Alabama Women’s Health and Safety Act, which passed in April 2013, stipulates that doctors working at abortion clinics in the state have hospital admitting privileges in the same city where they perform abortions. Also, all abortion clinics must meet the same safety standards as ambulatory surgical centers.
The standards include making sure hallways are wide enough to accommodate wheelchairs and patient gurneys. Failure to meet the requirements would mean the state health department must revoke the clinic’s license.
The clinic’s owners say they hope to be able to reopen their clinic in the future at a different location that meets the state requirements for women’s health and safety.
The abortionist called the “Gosnell of Texas” in reference to convicted murder Kermit Gosnell who killed babies born alive has been shut out of performing abortions in Texas.
Douglas Karpen has been unable to obtain admitting privileges at hospitals within 30 miles of his clinics, effectively banning him from performing the abortion procedures. However, the clinics have found other abortionists with privileges allowing the centers to continue to end the lives of babies via abortion.
Former employees of Karpen’s clinics have come forward to report multiple times that Karpen has killed babies born alive in his clinics. They report he has also violated the laws against late-term abortions.
Harris County District Attorney’s office officials said that they did not find enough evidence at the clinics to back the allegations. However, unlike Pennsylvania authorities that raided the clinics of Gosnell before announcing the investigation, Texas officials announced it first so Karpen knew the searches would be coming.
Karpen and his staff reportedly spent the time between the announcement and the raid cleaning up the facilities and disposing of evidence.
Karpen is currently defending against a lawsuit filed by a woman who claims that he ruptured her uterus during a late-term abortion in February 2013 and then did not tell her about the life-threatening mistake.
