Tag Archives: abortion

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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Remembering the bad old days

Posted on July 21, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

We’re headed back to them if the courts don’t intervene. Dr. Howard Novick winces as he recalls treating two and three women a week for infections and complications from botched abortions. It was the early 1970s, before the procedure was … Continue reading →

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The Mexican abortion option

Posted on July 20, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

Get ready for it. At the Whole Woman’s Health center here, a young woman predicted what others would do if the state’s stringent new abortion bill approved late Friday forces clinics like this one to close: cross the border to … Continue reading →

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To sue or not to sue?

Posted on July 19, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

Now that SB2 has passed, it’s time to consider the next move. As an omnibus bill restricting abortion access in Texas makes its way to Gov. Rick Perry’s desk, opponents of the measure are already weighing the possibility of suing … Continue reading →

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The state of abortion litigation

Posted on July 16, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

Emily Bazelon surveys the landscape. You’ve seen Texas legislator Wendy Davis in her pink sneakers and shuddered over the murder trial of baby killer Kermit Gosnell. Meanwhile, various states are passing increasingly extreme abortion restrictions. But with bill after bill, … Continue reading →

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She who must not be named

Posted on July 14, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

It’s nice to see that Nancy Brinker, founder of Susan G. Komen for the Cure, has found meaningful work to do now that she is no longer CEO of that organization. It’s not the least bit surprising to see that … Continue reading →

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When tampons are outlawed, only outlaws will have tampons

Posted on July 13, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

This is one of those things you just can’t make up. Inside Texas’ state legislature, loaded guns are fairly common. As the New York Times reported in March, “Just as Texas has long embraced its guns, so has the Capitol. … Continue reading →

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Senate passes non-abortion bills, committee passes HB2

Posted on July 12, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

The decks are cleared on the Senate side for the main event. In a speedy Thursday morning meeting with little debate, the upper chamber passed Senate Bill 2 with a 30-1 vote, allowing Texas judges and juries to sentence 17-year-olds … Continue reading →

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Four things to work on now that the omnibus anti-abortion bill is reality

Posted on July 11, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

1. Organize, organize, organize. Maintain the energy and sense of urgency that originated with the #StandWithWendy filibuster. This is a good way to draw people in while the iron is hot. Progressives and Planned Parenthood took their opposition to the … Continue reading →

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Back to the House

Posted on July 10, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

After the Senate adjourned on Tuesday morning without a committee vote on its omnibus anti-abortion bill following the long hearing in which there was a lot more hearing than listening, the House took up its bill, with more of the … Continue reading →

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Senate begins omnibus abortion bill hearings

Posted on July 9, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

Remember, it’s all about women’s health. Senate Bill 1, and its companion, House Bill 2, would ban abortion at 20 weeks post-fertilization and recognize that the state has a compelling interest to protect fetuses from pain; require doctors performing abortions … Continue reading →

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With Rick Perry, you always have to ask “Who benefits?”

Posted on July 8, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

Texas Politics had an item on Friday that perhaps should have received a higher profile. One of the controversial tenets of the abortion restriction bill would require all abortions to be performed in ambulatory surgical centers, which are a distinct … Continue reading →

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Coming attractions in the Senate

Posted on July 6, 2013 by Charles Kuffner

From Jessica Luther, a guide to Monday’s Senate hearing on their version of the omnibus anti-abortion bill. On Tuesday, the House Committee had their hearing for HB2 (what a sham that was, huh?). The Senate version of that bill – … Continue reading →

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