More than a dozen abortion clinics in Texas became defunct Friday after an appellate court issued a ruling that upheld a stringent anti-abortion law.

The three-judge panel reversed an earlier decision that allowed 13 clinics to remain open during the duration of the trial, reports ThinkProgress.

The federal appeals court decision requires all abortion facilities to become ambulatory surgical centers or mini hospitals, forcing all clinics that don't meet this strict standard to close its doors, reports Vox.

In addition, another provision under the law requires all abortion providers to have admitting privileges at local hospitals, even hospitals in the area are unwilling to grant the privileges.

As a result, 80 percent of the clinics in the state were forced to shut down, leaving only 8 remaining open in Houston, Dallas, San Antonio and Austin. This means that some women living in suburban or rural areas will have to travel hundreds of miles in order to gain access to a legal abortion.

Staffers at Whole Women's Health said that the women who were scheduled to receive abortion services at their clinic in McAllen will now have to travel to San Antonio because there no clinics are left in the Rio Grande Valley area.

"The need for the care in the Valley still remains," said Amy Hagstrom Miller, the CEO of Whole Women's Health, according to the Huffington Post. "We still have so many women coming to our doors asking for help. We're going to do our best to try to get women to the help they deserve and need in the short term."

Republican lawmakers backing the law claim that the law will provide women with extra protection.

"Women will be safer from Big Abortion's deadly, neglect [sic] and callous practices as a result of this courageous 5th Circuit Court ruling," said Americans United for Life President Charmaine Yoest. "Women won in Texas today. Without today's ruling, women and their unborn children would bear the deadly risk of abortion clinics that operate with substandard practices."

However, reproductive rights advocates argued in court that instead of protecting women's health, the law drastically limits women's access to safe and legal abortion.

"About 1 million women in Texas will now have to drive 300 miles round-trip to get to the nearest clinic. Since clinics began closing earlier this year, women have already been going over the border to Mexico or resorting to the black market to buy abortion-inducing drugs they can administer themselves," reports the HuffPo.

However, Stephanie Toti, senior counsel for the Center for Reproductive Rights, promised that her organization will appeal the court's decision.