“On Monday, a panel of judges from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit considered a package of harsh anti-abortion restrictions enacted in Texas over the summer. After lawyers for the Center for Reproductive Rights argued that the new law has left the impoverished Rio Grande Valley without any available providers, forcing women who live there to make an 300-mile round trip to Corpus Christi to get to the nearest clinic, Judge Edith Jones scoffed. “Do you know how long that takes in Texas at 75 miles an hour?” she asked. “This is a peculiarly flat and not congested highway.”

The new law went into effect at the beginning of November, after a different panel from the same appeals court declined to block it. Monday’s hearing marked the latest battle in an ongoing fight over abortion access in Texas that’s captured national attention over the past several months. The three judges selected to debate Texas’ stringent abortion law this week aren’t likely to strike it down — particularly because Jones is a notoriously conservative judge who has upheld other anti-choice laws in the Lone Star State. In fact, Jones has encouraged the Supreme Court to strike down Roe v. Wade altogether.

And during the proceedings on Monday, it became very clear that she hasn’t suddenly had a change of heart when it comes to reproductive rights.”* The Young Turks hosts Cenk Uygur and Ana Kasparian break it down.

*Read more here from Tara Culp-Ressler / ThinkProgress:
http://thinkprogress.org/health/2014/01/07/3126211/texas-judges-reproductive-rights/

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