
Awesome news!
(Huffington Post) — Two abortion clinics on Thursday join the growing list of Texas providers shutting down because of restrictions passed by the state legislature last summer, the clinics’ owner said.
Whole Women’s Health, which operates five abortion clinics and one ambulatory surgical center in Texas, will close its rural clinics in Beaumont and McAllen, Amy Hagstrom Miller, CEO of Whole Women’s Health, told HuffPost. The McAllen clinic was the last center serving women in the Rio Grande Valley, and the Beaumont clinic was the only abortion provider between Houston and Louisiana.
In a small town, it’s “next to impossible” to comply with the new law, which requires that abortion providers have admitting privileges at a local hospital, and that all abortions take place in ambulatory surgical centers, Miller said in an interview.
“The majority of the rural providers in Texas are now closed,” Miller said. “I’m stubborn or stupid to have kept mine open this long, but I can’t keep my doors open when I can’t see any patients.”
The anti-abortion law signed by Gov. Rick Perry (R) last summer, known as HB 2, also bans abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy and restricts how doctors can administer abortions with medication. Republican supporters of the bill said it was intended to protect women’s health.
The number of Texas abortion clinics has dropped by more than half since the state legislature began passing new restrictions on pregnancy termination in 2011. There were 44 clinics in 2011. With the closing of Miller’s two clinics, there are now 20. Only six of the remaining facilities are ambulatory surgical centers, which means that the remaining 14 will soon have to close unless they can comply with the new building requirements by the September 2014 deadline.
