This afternoon, U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel blocked a key part of Texas’ 2013 abortion law, which would have required hospital level operating standards. Out of the 19 abortion providers currently still operating in Texas, seven would have been left open after this law took effect next Monday. Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, who is currently running for governor, announced that he would be appealing the decision to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, which has already upheld another part of the law.

The new Texas restrictions would have required clinics to have operating rooms, air filtration systems and other standards that are typically only mandated in surgical settings.

Some clinics in Texas already stopped offering abortions after another part of the 2013 bill required doctors to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals. That part of the law has been upheld by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court in New Orleans, where the state will now seek a second reversal.

“The State disagrees with the court’s ruling and will seek immediate relief from the Fifth Circuit, which has already upheld HB2 once,” Abbott spokeswoman Lauren Bean said.

Abbott’s opponent in the gubernatorial election, Democrat Wendy Davis, who built her entire national profile on abortion rights and then got all huffy when she was tagged as “Abortion Barbie,” declared this ruling a “victory for women’s health care.”

“These decisions should only be made between a woman, her doctor and her God — not Austin politicians like Attorney General Greg Abbott, who would make abortion illegal even in cases of rape and incest,” said Davis, whose hours-long filibuster last summer pushed the law regulating abortions into the national spotlight.

A quick question for all who think this law is unnecessary and should be struck down…

Why should an abortion have less medical oversight than any other kind of surgery? Why should a woman deserve anything LESS than a hospital-level or surgical center setting when having this kind of invasive medical procedure done? Pro-abortion groups cannot have this both ways. They can’t demand an end to “back alley abortions,” and still demand that those same abortion providers not be operating in the same setting that anyone having surgery would feel entitled to have. Abortions are not just “quick” procedures. Even if you do not believe that you are ending a human life with an abortion (as I do) and you equate an abortion with having your tonsils out – don’t you still want the doctor removing your tonsils to be doing that procedure in a completely clean and sterile setting? Why wouldn’t you want that when having an abortion?

A small personal note, which will explain why I believe so strongly in this Texas law, and why it should be upheld:
I have four children here on earth. I have a fifth one in heaven. I miscarried a child at 12 weeks gestation, and my body refused to give my baby up naturally. On the advice of my OB/GYN, who guided me and my husband compassionately through this process, I had a D&C. It was performed in a surgical center attached to the same hospital where I gave birth to my children.

Three years after the D&C, I had to have my gallbladder out due to gallstones. That surgery was also performed in the same hospital, with the same procedures, and the same sterile operating room.

Please tell me, if you oppose this law – why would my D&C be a less important medical procedure that would not deserve the level of sterility, cleanliness, and care that my gallbladder removal had?

Either you believe in getting the best level of care for women’s health – which means that 12 of these Texas abortion clinics should be closed on Monday because they can’t provide that level of care, or, you are a partisan hack who just wants to see those abortion advocacy dollars stream into your coffers and you don’t care if the lack of oversight results in deaths. As it has before.

Pro-abortion advocates can’t have it both ways. Their hypocrisy needs to be exposed. And this law needs to stand.