Texas asked a federal appeals court on Friday to allow the state to enforce its anti-abortion law requiring all clinics to upgrade their facilities to surgical standards, according to the Associated Press.  

The upgrade would be a multi-million dollar expense that would have led to the closing of half the state's abortion facilities, or leaving just seven clinics open, down 20 from 41 year ago. 

The three-judge panel didn't immediately rule on Friday.

The request was made of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Louisiana,\ by Texas Solicitor General, Jonathan Mitchell.  

The requirement was ruled unconstitutional by a lower court on Aug. 29. 

In his 21-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel sided with the clinics that sued over the measure, writing, "The overall effect of the provisions is to create an impermissible obstacle as applied to all women seeking a previability abortion."

It also exempted clinics from the law's requirement that do cots have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital.

"This... decision.. stripped away the pretexts of the politicians who passed this law and revealed their true intention to deny Texas women access to safe, legal abortion care," said Nancy Nortup, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights in a statement. "The court has made clear that women's well-being is not advanced by laws attacking access to essential health care, and that rights protected by the U.S. Constitution may not be denied through law that make them impossible to exercise."

Critics of the law have called it a backdoor effort to outlaw abortions, which are a constitutional right since the Roe v. Wade ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1973.

Latin Post reported Latinas would have been deeply affected by the legislation, as 68 percent of Latinas believe in a woman's right to choose and 40 percent of Texas' population is Hispanic.

Texas Gubernatorial candidate Democrat Wendy Davis held a 13-hour filibuster last summer temporarily blocking the bill in the state Senate as reported by Latin Post. Running for Lieutenant Governor is Latina Leticia Van De Puffe.

"The anti-abortion movement will not stop until they have criminalized all abortions for all women in all circumstances. The emergency facing women is not over. Now is the time to redouble our efforts," said Sunsara Taylor from Abortion Rights Freedom Rider, who was arrested this month protesting HB2 at the time of the ruling.

According to the Guttmacher Institute, a nonprofit reproductive health organization, 47,000 women around the world die each year from unsafe abortions and millions more are injured.