The justices of the US Supreme Court are now pondering for yet another humdrum matters related to abortion law, such as the swinging of doors, floor tiles, the angle from which the water flows, and corridor width.
Abortion providers have challenged a law which was backed by Republicans in Texas back in 2013. At stake are two provisions, one involving the physicians' affiliation with the hospitals, and the other involves facility standards for abortion clinics.
The Deseret News reported that there were more than 40 facilities that provides abortions in Texas until Gov. Rick Perry signed a law which requires abortion clinics adhere to the same standards as ambulatory surgical centers. Currently, 19 clinics are operating in Texas with the possibility of more closures should the law be upheld.
The state said its goal is to provide protection for patient's safety. However, abortion rights supporters are against the regulations and pointed out that it was intended to cause the closure of clinics by forcing them to construct costly and unnecessary facilities that ultimately serves no public health purpose.
According to Reuters, the law was temporarily stopped by a lower court pending the Supreme Court ruling while a portion of the law that requires abortion physicians to have 'admitting privileges' at a local hospital, has already been implemented. The document contains 117 pages which outlines the facilities' standards and operations.
Such standard includes spacing of beds, the number of parking spaces, minimum corridor width, building ventilation, electrical wiring, elevator size, floor tiling, the size of patient recovery rooms, the availability of foam or liquid soap dispensers, and hand-washing fixtures in bathrooms.
A federal judge in the state of Texas rejected some parts of the regulations as not intended to promote women's health and clearly aimed at reducing access to abortion. However, the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans has accepted the state's arguments. The law that was passed in Texas has been copied across south and elsewhere, as reported by The Dallas Morning News.
According to abortion rights advocates, for abortion facilities that were not built to meet these standards, it is much easier for them rebuilt completely than retrofit an existing facility. Meanwhile, a US judge said if the law goes into effect, the number of licensed clinics in Texas would drop to eight from the forty that existed before the regulations took effect.
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