U.S. Supreme Court To Rule On Texas Abortion Law Case

The two sides of the abortion debate differ on how a ruling in the Texas case taken up by the Supreme Court on Friday could impact Ohio’s regulations.

Under the law, Alabama abortion clinics were held to the same standards as other medical facilities, and any physician who performed an abortion was required to have staff privileges at a local hospital. The Court must decide it the law imposes an undue burden on women who seek abortions.

Breitbart Texas reported that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit upheld on June 9th the strict abortion clinic restrictions passed into law by the Texas legislature.

Texas has been one of several states governed by Republicans which have pushed through new laws that effectively circumscribe the ability of women to seek terminations and challenge the broad current legal status quo that was laid down in the 1973 Roe v Wade ruling.

But National Right to Life president Carol Tobias said the clinics are more interested in preserving their cash flow than protecting women.

The case may turn out to be the third installment in a legal trilogy on the scope of the constitutional right to abortion, one that started with Roe and continued in 1992 with Planned Parenthood v. Casey. The clinic agreed to comply with the requirement as long as the law remains in effect.

The Supreme Court ruled that if the court declined to hear the appeal, the stay granted would terminate automatically.

The law requires state abortion providers to meet certain standards, ones that often call for clinics to make costly upgrades or personnel changes. Also at issue is a separate section of the 2013 law that requires abortion clinic doctors to have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital. The Supreme Court has not ruled on abortion since 2007.

These states have pursued restrictions including bans on certain types of abortion procedures, regulatory standards imposed on clinics and abortion doctors, waiting periods, ultrasound requirements and others.

It is the new abortion case, however it is decided, that is likely to produce the term’s most consequential and legally significant decision.

After the first provision of the law was enacted many were closed, leaving only 19 clinics in the state.

Operation Rescue discovered widespread abortion abuses in Texas during a 2011 investigation that resulted in heavy fines against two Whole Women’s Health abortion facilities for the illegal dumping of recognizable aborted baby remains in a public dumpster.

The court will hear oral arguments early next year, with a ruling due by the end of June.

Russell Moore, president of the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, said after the high court issued its order, “We shouldn’t be surprised that the abortion rights lobby fights legislation that creates accountability for surgeons and clinics”.

The abortion rights groups challenging the law say a further 10 will close unless the court intervenes.

With reporting from the Associated Press.