ABORTION CLINICS ARE CLOSING throughout the US at breakneck speed. In Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming only one clinic remains. And the Supreme Court is expected to hear whether or not a Texas law, which would shut down all but 10 of the state’s remaining abortion clinics, is constitutional.
The Texas ruling sits within a pile of other abortion laws that have recently garnered attention in the US. Recently, Indiana and Florida passed new laws that severely limit women’s access to abortion. The law will end state funding for family planning clinics like Planned Parenthood, which also offer abortions. The law also will require doctors who perform abortions to have admitting privileges at hospitals — often almost impossible to get because hospitals are under intense pressure from anti-abortion groups. This happens to be the same requirement that reduced Texas abortion clinics by half within one year.
