Last June the U.S. Supreme Court overturned most of a draconian abortion law in Texas that shut down more than half the abortion clinics in the state, reducing the number from 40 to 19. But while the law, known as House Bill 2, that forced clinics to follow costly but medically unnecessary regulations has been wiped off the books by the Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt decision, things are still looking dire for women who seek abortion services in Texas.
Whole Woman’s Health, the clinic behind the federal lawsuit, was only able to reopen its Austin branch last week. It’s just the second clinic to reopen its doors since the high court’s decision, meaning the number of abortion clinics in Texas is about half of the count before the 2013 law went into effect. It costs a lot of money and time to reopen a clinic, and it will be years before legal abortion access in Texas is restored to its old levels, if it ever is.
