New abortion clinic planned for Texas as law closes facilities

By Lisa Maria Garza DALLAS (Reuters) - Planned Parenthood will open a $5 million surgical abortion facility in San Antonio in a few months as other providers have been forced to close because of stringent restrictions passed by Texas lawmakers last year. The facility is expected to be completed by September, when new restrictions take effect, imposing surgical center standards for abortion clinics, even those that perform nonsurgical medication abortions. Since Texas enacted the law, which requires a physician to have admitting privileges at an appropriately equipped hospital within 30 miles, a third of clinics in the state have been closed, leaving 19 for a population of 26 million. Once the ambulatory surgical center regulation goes into effect on September 1, only about six abortion clinics would likely be able to meet all of the new requirements, Planned Parenthood said.



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