Supreme Court Blocks Abortion Restrictions in 2 More States

The Texas law required all abortions be performed in strictly-regulated surgical centers, with standards including sizes of rooms and doorways and staffing levels, and required that all doctors maintain admitting privileges at nearby hospitals.

Marina Lowe, legislative and policy council for the ACLU of Utah, said the Supreme Court’s ruling creates a strong precedent to challenge Utah’s laws.

Parker said he believes the real goal of admitting privileges laws is to limit access to abortion, and he praised the justices’ decision not to hear the MS case: “It’s the ultimate affirmation that we had always hoped for”.

“We conclude that neither of these provisions offers medical benefits sufficient to justify the burdens upon access that each imposes”, Justice Stephen Breyer wrote for the majority in Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt.

“This measure is created to protect the health and safety of women who undergo this potentially unsafe procedure, and physicians who provide abortions should be held to the same standards as physicians who perform other outpatient procedures”, Bryant said.

“Since those laws got struck down in Texas that probably means that they are unconstitutional in other states too, but even that isn’t absolutely guaranteed”, he said.

“Because if Hillary Clinton is the next president and has a chance to appoint three or four Supreme Court justices over the next several years”, he said, “these decisions won’t be narrow decisions”.

Supporters of the law say the ruling will hinder women’s health.

If the Supreme Court had left the law in place, only eight clinics would have remained open, including the Planned Parenthood facility in Austin, a US lower court judge said. They are trying to determine if there are any legal avenues to allow Missouri’s abortion clinic laws to stand.

The Center for Reproductive Rights called the law “an absolute sham”, arguing that abortion patients rarely require hospitalization and that many patients simply take two pills.

“Today’s decision from a divided court is a prime example of activist jurists imposing their will on the people”, Republican Gov. Scott Walker said in a statement.

“Our lawyers are still analyzing the decision”, said Tammi Kromenaker, director of the Red River Women’s Clinic.

The Supreme Court legalised abortion nationwide in its landmark 1973 Roe v Wade ruling.

He says courts have been deferential to state legislatures, but now states will have to show that they’re actually protecting women’s health by restricting abortions.