Texas researchers' findings factor into abortion ruling

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The biggest court ruling affirming U.S. abortion rights in a generation scolded Texas lawmakers for a lack of facts and vindicated Republicans' wonky pest: A team of university researchers so prolific in their scrutiny of Texas women's health laws that a state health official lost his job for collaborating with them.

Among some academics, the group's barrage of research published since the law passed in 2013 was unrivaled, pushing into the public arena suggestions that more women may try ending their own pregnancies or were driving farther to get abortions.

When one unflattering study in February suggested that funding cuts to Planned Parenthood restricted access to women's health care, the state's head of health research resigned under pressure from GOP lawmakers, who questioned his contributions to a "deeply flawed and highly political report."

[...] none of the states that have passed tough abortion laws had quite the amount of research as Texas did, arming abortion-rights groups in legal fights and giving judges data to chew on, said Elizabeth Nash, who studies state abortion laws for the New York-based Guttmacher Institute.

Earlier this month, the American Civil Liberties Union accused state health officials of "concealing" statewide abortion totals for 2014 in violation of open records laws.