Texas Abortion Clinics Stay Open Following Ruling

LUBBOCK, Texas (AP) — The only abortion clinic in a 300-mile swath of West Texas can resume taking appointments after a federal judge struck down new restrictions that would have effectively shuttered it.

Lubbock's Planned Parenthood Women's Health Center had stopped making appointments last week, bracing for this week's scheduled enforcement of a new requirement.

The requirement is part of a broad series of abortion limits the Legislature approved in July. It calls for all doctors performing abortions in the state to have admitting privileges at a hospital less than 30 miles away.

Supporters who sued to block the requirement argued it was meant to outlaw abortions, not make them safer as state officials had claimed. The judge agreed, finding that the law imposed an unconstitutional burden on women seeking to terminate a pregnancy.

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