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Lawyers for abortion clinics squared off with Texas state attorneys in a federal appeals court here on Wednesday, arguing over the constitutionality of stringent abortion clinic rules that would force more than half the remaining abortion providers in Texas to close. (Eckholm, 1/7)

The constitutionality of a Texas law that could force some women to travel hundreds of miles or cross state lines to get a legal abortion were debated Wednesday before a federal appeals court that has already dealt with similar issues in Mississippi. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had knocked down the Mississippi law that would have shuttered the state's only abortion clinic, which is in Jackson. Opponents of a Texas requirement that abortion clinics have the same facilities as surgical centers say it would result in a drop in legal abortion clinics from 17 to eight. None would be in the western half of the state. That includes El Paso, meaning women there would either have to make a 1,200-mile round trip to the nearest Texas clinic in San Antonio or drive into New Mexico, which doesn't have the same stringent clinic requirements. (McGill, 1/7)

Lawyers for the state of Texas were in federal appeals court in New Orleans Wednesday arguing in favor of a controversial state law that requires abortion clinics to meet the standards of outpatient surgery centers. If that provision is re-instated, ten of Texas’s remaining 17 abortion clinics would close immediately. Other provisions of the law – including one that said doctors who perform abortions need admitting privileges at nearby hospitals – have shuttered about half of Texas’ 40 abortion clinics over the past two years. (Feibel, 1/8)

The fight over greater regulation of abortion is swinging once again to the federal courts, where challenges to recent state laws are producing a patchwork of contradictory rulings that may eventually reach the Supreme Court. Legislators have enacted scores of new laws in the last few years, from bans on most abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy to requirements that doctors at abortion clinics have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital. Courts have blocked some measures and allowed others. And some statutes have taken effect without any pushback, typically in conservative regions where a federal appeals court would more likely support restrictions. (Winfield Cunningham, 1/8)