Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott has asked a federal appeals court judge to grant an emergency ruling allowing the state to enforce an anti-abortion law struck down by a lower court on Monday.
NPR's Kathy Lohr reports that the state argues that District Judge Lee Yeakel was in error when he ruled that the Texas law -- which requires doctors performing abortions to have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of the clinics they practice in -- presents an undue burden on women seeking abortions.
Yeakel said the law, which was due to take effect on Tuesday, is unconstitutional.
The state is asking the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, La., to overturn the district court ruling.
Lohr says, "Abortion rights activists say 22,000 women will not be able to get an abortion if the law goes into effect."
"Gov. Rick Perry, who has said he hopes to make abortion 'a thing of the past,' signed the legislation in July. It had been temporarily derailed when Wendy Davis, a Democratic state senator, mounted an 11-hour filibuster in the Republican-controlled Legislature. Ms. Davis is now running for governor, with abortion rights as one of her planks. ...
"Courts in Alabama, Mississippi, North Dakota and Wisconsin have blocked similar admitting-privilege requirements as part of the continuing battles over how much states may restrict the right to abortion granted by Roe v. Wade in 1973."
