Jan 21 2012
A Federal judge in Austin holds another hearing on Texas law requiring women seeking an abortion to have a sonogram. Also, NPR looks at the growing number of restrictions across the country.
Associated Press/Houston Chronicle: Texas Sonogram Lawsuit In Austin Federal Court
A constitutional fight over a Texas law requiring a woman to have a sonogram before getting an abortion is back in federal court. U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks in Austin is scheduled to hear oral arguments Friday in a challenge to the law by the New York-based Center for Reproductive Rights. Sparks previously ruled parts of the law unconstitutional and issued a temporary order against enforcement. But an appeals court said the law could be put in place pending the final outcome of the legal challenge (1/20).
NPR's SHOTS blog: New Restrictions On Abortion Almost Tied Record Last Year
The states that passed the largest number of abortion restrictions in 2011 all got new, anti-abortion GOP governors in 2009 or 2010: Florida, Arizona and Kansas. Interestingly, however, those states don't match the list of the top "pro-life" states as ranked today by the anti-abortion group Americans United for Life. AUL, which ranked states not just according to anti-abortion legislation but also issues including euthanasia, cloning and stem-cell research, put Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Pennsylvania at the top of its list. ... Meanwhile, the NARAL report shows that the 69 anti-abortion laws fell broadly into five separate categories (Rovner, 1/19).
This article was reprinted from kaiserhealthnews.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente. |