The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which is located in New Orleans, favored the House Bill 2, which is the abortion law passed by Republican-dominated Legislature in 2013.
The law would leave just seven abortion facilities in Texas, all of which would be in major cities and none in the western half of the state.
The court found that if the McAllen clinic closed, local women would have to drive 235 miles to obtain an abortion. To the contrary, a federal district judge determined that “there is no rational relationship between improved patient outcomes and hospital admitting privileges,” and he reached similar conclusions with respect to the portions of the law regulating clinic facilities.
“It’s a travesty that a state the size of Texas will only have eight safe, legal abortion clinics”. The Court, in an order approved by an apparent six-to-three vote, temporarily barred Texas from enforcing the surgical facilities mandate anywhere in the state, including at any clinic that performs abortions by the use of drugs instead of surgery - so-called “medication abortions”.
6/9/2026 4:30 PMCourt upholds key parts of Texas’ strict anti-abortion lawBy PAUL J. One aspect of the court’s analysis is particularly significant, however, because it could effectively render what remains of Roe v. Wade a dead letter, at least in the context of facial legal challenges.
Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a strong supporter of the law, praised the ruling.
Texas women and their preborn children will no longer be subjected to the grotesque reality inside Texas abortion facilities. “Today’s decision by the Fifth Circuit validates that the people of Texas have authority to establish safe, common-sense standards of care necessary to ensure the health of women”, Paxton says in a statement.
Kennedy’s opinion in Gonzales, however, gives lawmakers “wide discretion to pass legislation in areas where there is medical and scientific uncertainty”.
“Texas has struck a decisive blow for women’s health and safety against a predatory abortion industry”, Americans United for Life President and CEO Dr. Charmaine Yoest told LifeNews. Or they can take the matter to the Supreme Court, and God only knows what might happen there.
The much anticipated decision over the final part HB 2 comes roughly five months following oral arguments before the 5th Circuit (“HB 2 Back in Court: Judges Get Critical” Jan. 7). Throughout the case, the state has denied the obvious, that HB2 is clearly designed to limit access to Texas woman.
The judges ruled that Texas can require all abortion clinics in the state to meet the same building, equipment and staffing standards that hospital-style surgical centers must meet, which could force numerous clinics to close, abortion rights advocates said. Abortion practitioners should have no right to operate their businesses from sub-standard facilities and with doctors who lack admitting privileges at a hospital.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit rejected the challenge, saying it was unprecedented for a court to review a rule that had been introduced only in the form of a draft.
