CONTROVERSIAL

Court Upholds Texas Abortion Law

That Wendy Davis filibustered.

In a major victory for anti-abortion activists, a federal appeals court upheld the challenged parts of a Texas abortion law, which requires doctors performing abortions to have admitting privileges at a hospital less than 30 miles away. In addition, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to halt the implementation of the law. The law became famous after state senator Wendy Davis filibustered the bill for 12 hours in June 2013. Planned Parenthood, which led the lawsuit against the bill, claims the law will cause clinics to shut down because hospitals would refuse doctors admitting privileges. A district court had sided with Planned Parenthood, but the appeals court reversed that ruling, declaring that "the plaintiffs offered no evidence implying that the State enacted the admitting privileges provision in order to limit abortions."