Tuesday, April 8, 2014
Thursday, April 3, 2014
Onslaught of Texas Clinics Shut Down Due to Abortion Bill
Maria Esquinca
EL PASO- Texas
Mimi is 18, scared, and one month pregnant.
EL PASO- Texas
Mimi is 18, scared, and one month pregnant.
She is lying
down in a room surrounded by white bare walls. She can feel her heart vibrating
through her skin. Two nurses enter, they pour a cold blue gel into her stomach
and they do a sonogram.
“Do you want to
see the baby?” they ask Mimi.
“No, why would I
want to see it?” Mimi replies.
After the nurses
leave, the room seems to enlarge. Mimi stares at the bare white walls that
surround her. She feels her fear reflected in those dull walls.
Her heart is racing.
Her fingers are shacking. You wouldn’t know how scared she by looking at her
face.
She hides her fear carefully manipulating her
eyebrows, her mouth, her eyes.
“I was about to
go through something that’s not normal.”
At some point between
the nurses and the anesthesia something breaks. Her body and mind align.
Slowly, streaks
begin streaming down her face. Building in intensity until it’s a rushing uncontrollable
stream.
“You don’t have
to do the abortion if you don’t want to” the nurses tell her.
But it’s a
decision Mimi has made because she believes it’s the best decision she can make
for herself and for her unborn baby.
If she decided
to have the baby she will get kicked out her house, drop out of school, and be
with someone she does not love and who does not respect her. She fears what
kind of life she could provide under these circumstances for her child.
In five minutes-
it’s over.
It’s the humming
sound of a suction machine that she hears last.
Mimi wasn’t alone; she made a decision many
women make.
Abortion is one
of the most common surgical procedures.
According to the
Guttmacher Institute, at least 1.2 million have an abortion each year. By the
age of 20 one in seven women has undergone an abortion. By the age of 45 at
least one in three women has had an abortion.
In 2011 there
were 73,200 abortions in the state of Texas.
However, many
abortion clinics in Texas have closed reducing access to reproductive
healthcare for women after Texas House Bill 2 known as the pro-life omnibus
bill was passed.
On July 18, 2013
the bill was signed into law by governor Rick Perry surrounded by pro-lfe
enthusiasts and was sponsored by Jodie Laubenberg (R-Parker) and
Senator Glenn Hegar (R-Katy).
In an interview with the Texas Tribune Hegar stated, “there
has been no other piece of legislation that I have ever worked on — nor any
that I will ever work on — that has weighed so heavy on my mind, on my heart
and literally on my soul.”
Senator and gubernatorial nominee Wendy Davis had killed the
bill in the first special session after a 13-hour filibuster but it was later
approved by the house and the senate in the second special session.
In a visit to El Paso when asked what Davis would do to help
increase access to reproductive healthcare for women if she were to win the
governorship Davis stated,
“As a governor I think its imperative that we were to
reverse what’s happened in this state and allow women to access safe care again.
These are real people with real human impacts that are the victims of political
decision makers that are using them for the purpose of advancing their agendas
and it needs to stop.”
Texas HB 2 imposes some of the toughest restrictions in the
nation. Among the requirements imposed by the bill are, abortions are illegal
after 20 weeks of conception, doctors performing abortions need hospital
admitting privileges within a 30-mile hospital, and abortion clinics have to
meet the infrastructure of a surgical center.
Proponents of the bills say it will help increase safety for
women.
According to Emily Horne, Legislative Assistant at Texas
Rights for Life, a statewide pro-life organization in Texas that lobbied for
Texas HB 2, “higher surgical centers and higher doctor credentials will benefit
women.”
However, According to Jerri Lester administrator at
Reproductive Services, one of two abortion clinics in El Paso abortion clinics
are already heavily regulated for safety.
“There hasn’t been an active death in Texas since 1976.We’re
regulated by the Department of Health and Safety. We’re regulated by CLIA
(Clinical Laboratory Improvements Amendment). We’re constantly looked at by the
Fed.”
Critics claim the abortion bill was not passed to increase
safety to women but as a political move.
Drew Stanley, Social Media and Innovation Manager for Whole
Women’s Health stated, “There is no need to make it safe. The complication rate
of abortion is less than 1%. It’s a very safe procedure. This was not designed
to protect women it was meant to shut down clinics.”
Stanley cited a controversial tweet by Lieutenant Governor
David Dewhurst in which he re-tweeted a picture by a reproductive rights group
that stated “If SB5 (Texas HB2) passes it would essentially ban abortion
statewide.”
Beside the image Dewhurst tweeted “We fought to pass SB5
through the senate last night and this is why!”
In a statement to the Texas Tribune, Glenn Smith, the
director of Progress Texas PAC, a left-leaning policy group, said “He used a
pro-choice graphic about the number of clinics that would have to close to make
his point that the closing was his goal all along,”
Texas already boasted limited reproductive healthcare before
HB2.
According to a report by the Guttmacher Institute, in 2011 93% of Texas
counties had no abortion clinic. 35% of Texas women lived in these counties. The new provisions set in place by Texas HB 2 further restrict access to reproductive healthcare.
According to the Department of Public Health Services before
the restrictions took places there was 40 licenses abortion providers in Texas,
now there are 28.
Researchers at
the Texas Policy Evaluation Projects said the number of providers still
performing abortions in Texas is even lower than the number of licenses
providers. In August, after the hospital admitting provisions took effect only 34 of the licensed providers were still performing abortions.
Currently there are no abortion clinics serving in the Rio Grande Valley, one of the poorest regions of Texas.
Whole Women’s Health was forced to close their clinics in McAllen and Beaumont after their doctors were not able to obtain hospital-admitting privileges.
For women who live in McAllen the nearest clinic is 150 miles away.
The Texas Hospital Association on behalf of 450 member
hospitals wrote a statement of opposition to SB5 (HB2):
Requiring a hospital to grant
admitting privileges to physicians who do not
provide services inside the hospital
is time consuming and expensive for the hospital and does not serve the purpose
for which privileges were intended; rather, the Texas Medical Board is the
appropriate agency to address whether physicians are delivering appropriate
care to patients, as the TMB regulates all physicians. Hospitals should not be
required to assume responsibility for the qualifications of physicians who do
not practice in the hospital.
The process for doctors to obtain hospital admitting
privileges can be complex and vary from hospital to hospital.
“It’s very difficult and that’s why now 21 clinics in Texas
have closed. Every hospital has a certain amount of qualifications that their
own hospital requires” Lester said.
In an interview with KUT news 90.5 Amy Hagstrom Miller,
President and CEO of Whole Woman’s Health said, “some hospitals
require an application in order to even get an application."
In February of 2013 Houston doctor Theodore Herring was
suspended after he was found to be performing abortions without hospital
admitting privileges. He performed 268 abortions between Nov.6 and Feb.7 according
to the Texas Medical Board.
According to another report by the Guttmacher Institute
titled “Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers” currently there exist ten
states that require providers to have admitting privileges.
Planned Parenthood, Whole Women’s Health and the ACLU
challenged the constitutionality of the hospital admitting privileges provision
of Texas HB2 arguing it violates the due process and equal protections clauses.
Federal District court Judge Lee Yeakel had ruled the
provision was indeed unconstitutional.
In his ruling Yeakel wrote:
“The provision requiring doctors to
obtain hospital admitting privileges 'does not bear a rational relationship to
the legitimate right of the State in preserving and promoting fetal life or a
woman's health and, in any event, places a substantial obstacle in the path of
a woman seeking an abortion of a nonviable fetus and is thus an undue burden to
her.”
However, the state of Texas appealed Yeakel’s ruling, which was
recently overturned by a three-judge panel by the 5th Circuit U.S.
of Appeals Court.
A 2013 November report by The Alliance for Justice stated
that “10 of its 15 active judges were appointed by Republican Presidents, and
its decisions often reflect a concerted effort by Republican administrations to
impose a conservative policy agenda through the courts.”
The panel was composed of Chief Justice Edith Jones and
Judges Jennifer Elrod and Catherine Hayes.
Chief Justice Edith Jones was appointed to the 5th
Circuit of U.S. Appeals by Ronald Reagan in 1985.
In her past, Jones had dismissed McCorey v. Hill, a suit challenging the constitutionality though she
later wrote to the Supreme Court to overturn the ruling of Roe v. Wade.
Judge Catherine Haynes was appointed by George Bush and in
2013 upheld a Louisiana law that broadens the malpractice liability of abortion
providers by allowing women to sue for damage to the fetus.
Despite the court including Judge Lee Yeakel’s that 24
counties in the Rio Grande Valley would be left without an abortion clinic, the
court ruled that Yeakel had erred in his decision.
The court did have an exception, stating admitting
privileges could not be enforced to clinics that had timely applied for the
privileges but have not been informed of the decision.
The regulations set in place by HB 2 has led critics to say
it will lead to women attempting self-induced abortions. There’s an ever bigger
risk for women living in the Rio Grande valley who can easily cross the border
and obtain the abortion pill there.
“Their (women in the RGV) only other option is to go to
Mexico. That means they will by an abortion pill in the flea market or seek an
unsafe service. Even when we were in McAllen we had women trying to
self-induce,” said Stanley.
According to Laster self-induced abortion through the pill
could be very dangerous not only to women in the states but in Mexico as well.
“They would be seeking to use the pill in ways its not
supposed to be used. There’s going to be bleeding…and vise versa for the women
in Mexico. It’s going to be unsafe for them.”
After the
hospital admitting privileges are set to take place in September it is
estimated that only six clinics will remain open in the whole state of Texas.
Planned
Parenthood recently announced it would open a new clinic in San Antonio that
meets all the requirements.
The two
abortion clinics in El Paso will more than likely close.
Hilltop
Reproductive Services declined to comment, however when Lester was asked
whether Reproductive Services will be open after September she said, “the
affordability of changing it to a surgical center is probably improbable.”
In Pennsylvania
where one third of the abortion clinics have closed due to structural
requirements similar to the ones enacted by HB 2 a mother was arrested for
buying abortion pills for her 16-year-old daughter.
After all the
provisions are implemented in September girls like Mimi are going to be left
with little options.
When asked what
she would’ve done if the nearest abortion clinic were in Austin or San Antonio
Mimi said,
“I don’t know
what I would’ve done... I probably would’ve packed all my stuff and just left
home and had the kid.”
Wednesday, March 26, 2014
Tuesday, March 25, 2014
Tuesday, March 4, 2014
Thursday, February 27, 2014
Tuesday, February 25, 2014
Tuesday, February 11, 2014
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