Another sign the anti-abortion movement is getting stronger in the USA. A doctor in Texas has had his licence suspended after failing to comply with the State’s new anti-abortion laws.
Dr. Theodore Herring who has been a doctor for almost 40 years, has been deemed a 'public threat' by the state and is the first doctor to be suspended since the law was passed in November.
The new law requires that all abortion clinics must have a partnership with a hospital within a 30-mile radius so that patients have access to emergency care if they need it. But it’s widely believed to be unnecessary since abortion complications are rare – only around 0.5 percent of patients ever need to visit a hospital after an abortion.
The law is another sign that Texas (the state where senator Wendy Davis famously filibusted to try to prevent anti-abortion laws getting signed) is becoming increasingly strict. Women wanting to have an abortion there already are forced to look at an ultrasound of their foetus before they're allowed to go through with it, something that one resident told us earlier this month was cruel.
Herring was actually in the process of getting admitting privileges to a hospital, and in the meantime continued offering services at his clinic. The Texas Medical Board says he poses a threat to public safety. They also suspended the licence of Herring’s clinic, shutting it down instantly.
Many hospitals are refusing to partner with abortion doctors, forcing many clinics to scale back services or risk breaking the law. The lack of available hospitals has led to an overload of patients in the clinics that are legally allowed to practice and Think Progress says that around 22,000 women in Texas will be unable to have safe, legal abortions this year. Grim.
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.