Texas women undergo an average of 80,000 abortions a year. That number, however, is likely to be slashed by next year as the pro-life House Bill 2 takes full effect. Thanks to this newly enforced legislation, which, among other restrictions, bans abortions after 20 weeks and requires abortion clinics to obtain admitting privileges from local hospitals, a dozen abortion clinics in the state are set to close -- nine of which have already shuttered.
Get ready for a whole lot more encouraging numbers. This is just one of the positive headlines making its rounds on the web, from LifeNews, “Abortions Stopped at 16 Texas Clinics Under New Law, Saving 50 Babies Daily.”
"By our count, as a result of Thursday’s ruling, 16 abortion clinics have stopped supplying abortions in Texas. There are reports that women who were scheduled for abortions have made decisions to carry their babies to term because of the clinic closures.
Right now, the new law is saving an estimated 50 innocent lives per day and is actively protecting the health of women by closing clinics that dangerously cannot ensure a continuity of care.”
The pro-choice response was worded a little differently.
“It is a sad and dark day for women in Texas; we have regressed backwards about 30 years,” Amy Hagstrom Miller, the president of Whole Women’s Health, told ThinkProgress in an emailed statement. Three of the five clinics that she runs will now be forced to close.
A more specific report is available on the Fund Texas Women Facebook page, where it's revealed there is now no access to abortion in Tarrant County, the Panhandle, or anywhere north of Austin except in Dallas.
If it’s “sad” and “dark” news when thousands of babies’ lives are being saved, I shudder to think what pro-choice activists define as a day full of sunshine.
The mourning continued at Bloomberg, where Ken Lambrecht, president of Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas, said his organization canceled appointments for 100 women who had abortion procedures scheduled for Nov. 1. He then lamented that as many as 20,000 women a year seeking abortions in Texas could be turned away unless the court blocks the hospital-privileges law.
The admitting privileges pro-choicers are decrying, however, should already be necessary for abortionists to obtain before performing these often dangerous procedures. Hospitals examine a physician’s board certifications, malpractice history, reported complications, level of experience and expertise, and validation of educational credentials when determining whether or not to grant him or her admitting privileges. Standard stuff, right? Kristan Hawkins at LifeNews puts it best,
"If a doctor cannot get admitting privileges, then maybe women should be protected from receiving any medical treatment (or mistreatment) from him or her."
Nevertheless, pro-abortion organization Planned Parenthood is so upset about the life saving House Bill 2, that they filed an emergency appeal to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, asking the Supreme Court to get involved and block the bill. Scalia gave Texas until November 12 to respond.
Depending on the Lone Star State's answer, more abortion clinic signs may end up like the one pictured above.
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