Tag Archives: abortion

Ambulatory surgical center requirements of HB2 struck down

Posted on August 30, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

A last minute reprieve, though who knows for how long. A federal judge on Friday struck down new requirements for Texas abortion facilities — a decision that could have shuttered all but a few abortion clinics in the state. The … Continue reading →

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Latest HB2 trial wraps up

Posted on August 15, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

And so we await a ruling, followed by whatever the Fifth Circuit will pull out of its posterior. Stefanie Toti, representing the Center for Reproductive Rights, said the requirements imposed by the ambulatory surgical center rules single out abortion providers, … Continue reading →

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Intimidation tactics

Posted on August 14, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

Very creepy. Anti-abortion activists in Texas employ strategies to identify and monitor abortion patients, investigate abortion providers and clinic staff and search tax records to find locations of abortion providers, according to newly released undercover audio. The audio, from NARAL … Continue reading →

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The state’s puppet witnesses in the HB2 lawsuit

Posted on August 8, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

The Austin Chronicle tells the story. Among the state defense witnesses who took the stand on the third day of trial against Texas’ abortion-restricting House Bill 2 were two women with overt objections to abortion and one physician whose testimony … Continue reading →

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Next lawsuit against HB2 is underway

Posted on August 5, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

We’ll see if the result this time is any better. Texas abortion providers’ next attempt to block strict abortion regulations that the Republican-led Legislature passed last year begins Monday in Austin, where a federal court is considering whether to block … Continue reading →

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Planned Parenthood comes out swinging

Posted on July 21, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

Good to see. Planned Parenthood’s political arm is embarking on the most aggressive campaign it has ever waged in Texas, with plans to spend $3 million to turn out voters for Democratic candidates including Sens. Wendy Davis for governor and … Continue reading →

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The Mexican abortion option, one year later

Posted on July 3, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

Exactly as predicted. The Alamo flea market sits right off South Texas’s lengthy Highway 83; a sprawling, dusty, labyrinth of a place. Under canopies in the converted parking lot, vendors in dark sunglasses stand behind tables heaped with piles of … Continue reading →

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The fire still burns

Posted on June 27, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

As an addition to my own response to Lisa Falkenberg’s column about the one-year anniversary of Sen. Wendy Davis’s historic filibuster and the popular uprising around it, I want to call your attention to Andrea Grime’ piece in RHRealityCheck. It’s … Continue reading →

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What would you have done differently?

Posted on June 27, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

Lisa Falkenberg remembers the Wendy Davis filibuster and complains about what has and hasn’t happened between then and the one-year commemoration of it. You don’t just dust off a social movement because a year has passed and you need to … Continue reading →

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The filibuster one year later

Posted on June 25, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

It still resonates. And I believe it will continue to resonate for a lot longer. The thousands of Texans whose screaming protest of anti-abortion legislation brought the Capitol to a standstill June 25 will mark the one-year anniversary much more … Continue reading →

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Planned Parenthood petitions Fifth Circuit for en banc review of HB2 ruling

Posted on April 11, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

From the inbox: Today, Planned Parenthood affiliates in Texas filed a petition on behalf of their patients to request that the full bench of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals consider the constitutionality of harmful abortion restrictions that were struck down … Continue reading →

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Another lawsuit against HB2 to be filed

Posted on April 3, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

If at first you don’t succeed… Less than a week after a federal court upheld two new Texas abortion requirements already in effect, abortion providers announced plans to file a second lawsuit targeting additional regulations that the Republican-led Legislature passed … Continue reading →

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Fifth Circuit does its thing again

Posted on March 29, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

There was never any doubt. The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday upheld the new abortion regulations that were passed in July by the Republican-led Texas Legislature. The plaintiffs, who represent the majority of abortion providers in Texas, including four … Continue reading →

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How extreme is too extreme?

Posted on February 3, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

The GOP candidates for Lite Guv are doing their best to test the hypothesis that having an R next to your name is all you need to get elected statewide in Texas, regardless of your stated positions on issues. The … Continue reading →

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Where are the women’s health providers?

Posted on January 15, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

The Republican jihad against Planned Parenthood continues to have real consequences. In 2011, under pressure from Republican leaders, state health officials began enforcing a provision lawmakers wrote to exclude Planned Parenthood and any clinics with organizational ties to abortion providers … Continue reading →

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Fifth Circuit pretends to hear HB2 appeal

Posted on January 7, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

We’re all sure what their decision will be, right? Appellate judges on Monday challenged lawyers over provisions of Texas’ new abortion law and whether they have unduly caused the closure of about a dozen abortion clinics. The three-judge panel of … Continue reading →

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HHSC publishes rules relating to HB2

Posted on December 31, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

HHSC is all in on the omnibus anti-abortion bill passed during the special session this summer. Texas health officials have a message for the more than 19,000 folks who wrote in to oppose new abortion regulations: Each individual commenter failed … Continue reading →

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HBU wins contraception mandate lawsuit

Posted on December 31, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

This is very disappointing. The federal government cannot force Houston Baptist University to pay for emergency contraception services as part of its employee health insurance plans, according to a ruling Friday by U.S. District Judge Lee Rosenthal. The decision is … Continue reading →

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SCOTUS declines to reinstate the injunction against HB2

Posted on November 20, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

Dammit. U.S. Supreme Court justices on Tuesday rejected a request by abortion providers to intervene in their lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of new abortion regulations in Texas that took effect in November. “Reasonable minds can perhaps disagree about whether the … Continue reading →

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It’s about much more than abortion

Posted on November 19, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

Yet another reminder that even if the Legislature had taken no action on abortion since 2011, it still grievously damaged women’s access to healthcare. The closure of nine of 32 family planning clinics in the Rio Grande Valley — a … Continue reading →

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SCOTUS to review request to reinstate injunction against HB2

Posted on November 13, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

It’s never a good thing to have one’s fate in Justice Scalia’s hands, but that’s where we are. State attorneys filed a response on Tuesday to abortion providers’ request for the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene in the ongoing legal … Continue reading →

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Abortion providers petition SCOTUS for injunction review

Posted on November 5, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

We’ll see what happens. Abortion providers on Monday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to reinstate a lower federal court’s injunction that blocked Texas from implementing strict new abortion rules. “Right now, women in vast swaths of Texas are being turned … Continue reading →

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Have I mentioned lately that the Fifth Circuit sucks?

Posted on November 1, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

The only mystery is that it took them this long. Texas abortion providers’ Monday victory was short-lived. The U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday reversed a federal district court ruling that found part of the state’s new abortion … Continue reading →

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Not all of HB2 was blocked

Posted on October 31, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

That injunction didn’t cover everything. As state officials appealed a federal judge’s order blocking a portion of Texas’ new abortion law, a prohibition against performing the procedure after 20 weeks of pregnancy quietly took effect Tuesday. While the ban will … Continue reading →

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No action from Fifth Circuit yet

Posted on October 30, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

HB2 is still enjoined. The Texas attorney general’s office is seeking an emergency stay, asking the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to reverse U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel’s ruling against abortion regulations in House Bill 2. Beginning Tuesday, abortion … Continue reading →

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Injunction granted against HB2

Posted on October 29, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

Good. Less than 24 hours before new abortion regulations were set to take effect in Texas, U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel on Monday blocked implementation of one provision challenged by abortion providers and partially blocked a second provision, ruling that … Continue reading →

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Up to the judge in the abortion lawsuit trial

Posted on October 25, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

We expect a quick ruling. With days remaining until new abortion regulations take effect in Texas, attorneys for abortion providers and the state of Texas presented their final arguments Wednesday on whether those restrictions meet constitutional muster. “The result is … Continue reading →

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Lawsuit against abortion restrictions goes to trial

Posted on October 22, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

Here we go. Seeking to block the state of Texas from implementing new abortion regulations, plaintiffs representing abortion providers argued Monday in a federal court that the state’s law violates the constitutional right of women to access the procedure. But … Continue reading →

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First lawsuit filed over abortion restrictions

Posted on September 30, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

Good. The next stage in abortion rights advocates’ efforts to block implementation of strict new regulations on the procedure in Texas began on Friday, as the Center for Reproductive Rights, the American Civil Liberties Union and a group of abortion … Continue reading →

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Restricting abortion has always been about restricting abortion

Posted on September 21, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

Claims that it’s about “protecting women” have always been baloney. In their successful push this summer for strict new regulations on abortion facilities and the doctors performing them, proponents of the legislation said it was needed because conditions at existing … Continue reading →

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We need you, Leticia

Posted on September 18, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

Please decide soon. Leticia Van de Putte did not announce her candidacy for lieutenant governor when she addressed the Bexar County Young Democrats on Wednesday night. But it was the way Van de Putte didn’t announce it that provided encouragement … Continue reading →

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“Poopgate” is a big load of…

Posted on August 28, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

Well, you know. Documents released Monday by the Texas Department of Public Safety’s provided no new evidence that officers found one jar of urine and 18 containers of feces at the Capitol before a July 12 debate on a controversial … Continue reading →

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A reduction in funding for women’s health leads to fewer women getting health care

Posted on August 10, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

Shocking, I know. The number of claims filed for medical and family planning services in the new state-run Texas Women’s Health Program has dropped since the state ousted Planned Parenthood from it and set up its own program without federal … Continue reading →

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Remember how concern for women’s health was supposed to be a thing?

Posted on July 24, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

Now that the omnibus anti-abortion bill has been passed and signed, the Republicans can quit pretending to care about the state of health care access for women in Texas as before. Three Planned Parenthood family planning clinics in Southeast Texas … Continue reading →

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