NPR reports that the way most states define what constitutes 20 weeks of pregnancy in their abortion laws isn’t the same way most doctors define it. In the meantime, Mexican abortion pill sellers just across the border from Texas expect a boon after that state’s new abortion restrictions.
NPR: State Abortion Laws Differ From Doctors In Defining 20 Weeks
Texas last week became the 12th state to ban most abortions after 20 weeks. But most of the state laws don’t define 20 weeks the same way doctors do (Rovner, 7/22).
WBUR: Here Now: Abortion Pill Sellers In Mexico Expect Boom From Texas (Audio)
Texas Governor Rick Perry signed a new law yesterday that bans abortion after 20 weeks, and increases the standards for clinics and doctors who provide abortions. Clinics have a little more than a year to upgrade to ambulatory surgical centers, and critics say it will force as many as 37 of the state’s 42 clinics to close. Women in rural and poor areas of Texas will be the most affected. From the Here Now Contributors Network, Joy Diaz of KUT in Austin, traveled to the border town of Laredo, Texas, where women haven’t had access to abortion clinics for years. She found that right across the border in Mexico, those who supply abortion-inducing drugs are bracing for a business boom (Diaz, 7/19).
This article was reprinted from kaiserhealthnews.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.
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