Abortion-rights Groups Sue Texas Over New Restrictions

The Center for Reproductive Rights and Planned Parenthood filed a lawsuit in federal district court Thursday challenging a new Texas law preventing doctors from performing one of the most common second-trimester abortion procedures.Medical professionals refer to the banned procedure as "dilation and evacuation," and there is medical consensus that the procedure is safe."The dilation and evacuation ban only further restricts Texans' ability to get safe and legal abortions, something that Texas legislators are hell-bent on making more difficult," said Blake Rocap, legislative counsel for NARAL Pro-Choice Texas.The "dismemberment" abortion ban is one part of sweeping anti-abortion legislation signed by Gov. Abbott in May. The legislation also requires fetal tissue, whether from abortion, miscarriage or stillbirths, to be buried or cremated and prohibits "partial-birth" abortions, something that has been banned by federal law since 2003.Last June, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the state's sweeping 2013 anti-abortion law that led to the closure of the majority of abortion clinics in Texas.  Continue reading...