Abortion returns to Supreme Court altered by Scalia’s death

In a sign that more could follow, 23 states including Louisiana signed an amicus brief in support of Texas in the Supreme Court case, arguing for states’ rights in regulating women’s health and safety. A federal district court judge blocked the measure’s enforcement that month; the same judge continued to block it in January 2016. But according to the law the 5th Circuit upheld, doctors must have admitting privileges with a hospital within 30 miles.

WASHINGTON (AP) – The Supreme Court challenge to a Texas law that has dramatically reduced the number of abortion clinics in the state is the justices’ most significant case on the hot-button issue in almost a quarter-century. The clinics and abortion-rights groups are hoping for a ruling that might bolster challenges to other restrictions on abortion.

The regulations have been put on hold by a lower court pending the Supreme Court ruling. This law imposes medically unnecessary and onerous restrictions on abortion clinics.

A pivotal abortion case coming before the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday forces the justices to ponder seemingly mundane matters such as corridor width, the swinging motion of doors, floor tiles and the angle that water flows from drinking fountains.

A trial court had previously issued a preliminary injunction preventing the state from enforcing a state law that requires all doctors performing abortions at clinics to “have active admitting privileges at a hospital that is located not further than thirty miles from the location at which the abortion is performed or induced and that provides obstetrical or gynecological health care services”.

Kyleen Wright, president of Texans for Life Coalition, told CP in a previous interview that when she and other pro-life advocates first started petitioning lawmakers to craft a bill that requires abortionists to have admitting privileges at area hospitals, they had no idea so many would be considered a liability, and thus unable to obtain privileges.

“The more aggressively the abortion lobby fights against commonsense legislation aimed at protecting maternal health, the more we know we are winning”. The law requires all clinics to meet the same standards as ambulatory surgical centers. In August 2014, attorneys representing Louisiana’s abortion providers sued to block the law from taking effect.

The Center for Reproductive Rights, an abortion rights group, said it would appeal the decision to the US Supreme Court. Sham laws, just like the one passed by Texas politicians, take away a woman’s right to make her own decisions about her health, her family and her future. The women who visit clinics “deserve the best care”, she said. Today, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit today granted an extraordinary emergency stay of the federal court decision.

Here’s a review of the landscape for abortion providers in Louisiana until that ruling comes.

Women already make the drive from Louisiana and MS to have abortions at the West Alabama Women’s Center in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, said Dr. Willie Parker, who performs abortions in Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi. It would be among four clinics, out of five, that would have to close under the Alabama admitting privileges law, which is not in effect. The New York Times described it as a “landmark case” that would answer the questions “Can the courts second-guess a legislature’s assertion that a rule promotes women’s health?”

“These laws are tantamount to an outright ban for too many”, said Amy Hagstrom Miller, chief executive of Whole Woman’s Health, which operates clinics in Texas and other states.

Somehow those intent on restricting abortion access have stood behind claims of faith and moral beliefs as a means to deny women their reproductive freedom.