Abortion clinics to remain open following ruling

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- Protest follows a federal judge's ruling that requiring Texas abortion clinics to meet the standards of an ambulatory-surgical center is unconstitutional. So the dozen clinics that would have closed Monday will stay open for now, pending an appeal.

"They don't know if the Fifth Circuit is going to lift that injunction. So they don't know if they're going to be open Wednesday or Thursday or Friday," says Poppy Northcutt with the Houston Area National Organization for Women.

Judge Lee Yeakel said in his ruling that the rule is unconstitutional because it, "imposes an undue burden on the right of women throughout Texas to seek a pre-viability abortion."

That new provision would have dropped the number of clinics from 19 to seven or eight. There were more than 40 just two years ago.

"When you have half the clinics shut, then the other half are having to pick up the slack in trying to handle that patient load," Northcutt tells us.

The Houston Women's Clinic is one of about a dozen abortion providers that would have been affected by the new law. Dozens of protectors with Houston Pro-Life Missionaries who spent Saturday morning and afternoon outside the clinic say Judge Yeakel made a mistake.

"We need to have complete abolition of the entire abortion industry," says Caleb Head. "Abortion should be unthinkable. You should never be able to kill your baby ever."

Protesters outside of Planned Parenthood, which would have stayed open under the new law, agree the judge made the wrong call.

"We believe in life," Theresa Vincent says. "We believe it's a precious gift from God. And we believe what the judge has done is not representative of the people of Houston."

Attorney General Greg Abbot's office says the state disagrees with the judge's ruling, and will seek immediate relief from the Fifth Circuit.