AUSTIN, Texas -- More than 600 women's rights protesters have crowded into the Texas Capitol as lawmakers prepare to vote on some of the toughest abortion restrictions in the country.


The Republican-controlled Legislature is scheduled to vote Sunday on the new laws as time was running out in a special session.


The bills would ban abortions after 20 weeks, require that they take place in surgical centers and restrict where and when women can take abortion-inducing pills. Part of the new law would also require doctors performing abortions to have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles.


Supporters say the measures are intended to protect women's health, but opponents call them needless regulations to make abortions more difficult to obtain.


If passed, 90 percent of the abortion clinics in Texas would close.



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