Lawyers for Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers brought the lawsuit. Judge blocks abortion restrictions

A federal district court has ruled that one abortion restriction passed by the Texas state Legislature over the summer is unconstitutional and has partially blocked another.

District Judge Lee Yeakel has blocked the state from enforcing a requirement that abortion-providing doctors obtain admitting privileges at local hospitals — a restriction that would have ended abortion services at one-third of the health centers currently providing them. He also blocked restrictions on the use of medication abortion. Both restrictions would have gone into effect on Tuesday.


Planned Parenthood and more than a dozen other women’s health providers that filed the suit successfully demonstrated that the admitting privileges provision puts an “undue burden” on a woman seeking an abortion in Texas, as the provision creates a “substantial obstacle” to accessing such service, Yeakel wrote.

The court concluded that admitting privileges provisions does not necessarily improve patient care or protect the life of a woman and her fetus, as the state had argued.

The court also blocked a provision requiring that women getting medication abortions follow an FDA-approved protocol in cases where doing so puts women at risk. The ruling allows a doctor to follow the more widely used, “off-label” protocol if he or she determines it is safer for the woman.