TEXAS – Abortion rights advocates are taking the state of Texas to court.
The groups are challenging the Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers laws. TRAP puts regulations on abortion providers, which are not imposed on other medical professionals.
In 2016, the Supreme Court struck down some of the state's TRAP policies, but did not invalidate all of them. Some say those policies make abortions less accessible.
“It’s about this layering of restrictions that are designed to persuade people and prevent them altogether from accessing safe, legal, medical abortions,” said Amanda Williams with the Lilith Fund, which helps women pay for abortions.
One part of the law requires women to undergo a mandatory ultrasound, which advocates said is demeaning and distrusts a woman’s ability to decide whether or not to have an abortion.
The state of Texas has been regulating spaces and procedures for abortion providers with the Texas Abortion Facility Licensing Act since 1989. Over the decades that followed Texas has added more laws on the books.
“This is a comprehensive lawsuit that aims to move all of the restrictions that have been passed by anti-choice politicians in Texas over the years,” said Andrea Ferrigno with Whole Woman’s Health.
The University of Texas system is included in the lawsuit. The seven plaintiffs said the university denies students credit for internships with organizations that facilitate abortions.
In a statement from the University system, a spokeswoman said they are reviewing the lawsuit and had no comment.
The Texas Attorney General's Office released the following statement:
“The U.S. Supreme Court has not only upheld requirements like many of those being challenged in this lawsuit, but affirmed multiple times that the state has an interest in safeguarding women’s health and protecting unborn life. Abortion providers have been complying with the laws being challenged in this case for years. They are common-sense measures necessary to protect Texas women from unhygienic, unqualified clinics that put women’s lives and reproductive health at risk. It is ridiculous that these activists are so dedicated to their radical pro-abortion agenda that they would sacrifice the health or lives of Texas women to further it.”
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