Supreme Court To Hear Case Of Restrictive Texas Abortion Law

FILE - This Friday, Oct. 3, 2014 file photo, shows the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington. The Supreme Court is casting a skeptical eye on voter-approved commissions that draw a state's congressional district boundarie... FILE - This Friday, Oct. 3, 2014 file photo, shows the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington. The Supreme Court is casting a skeptical eye on voter-approved commissions that draw a state's congressional district boundaries. The justices heard arguments Monday, March 2, 2015 in an appeal from Arizona Republicans who object to the state's independent redistricting commission that voters created to reduce political influence in the process. A decision against the commission also would threaten a similar system in neighboring California and could affect commissions in an additional 11 states. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File) MORE LESS
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WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court is taking on its first abortion case in eight years, a dispute over state regulation of abortion clinics.

The justices said Friday they will hear arguments over a Texas law that would leave about 10 abortion clinics open across the state. A decision should come by late June, four months before the presidential election.

The high court previously blocked parts of the Texas law.

States have enacted a wave of measures in recent years that have placed restrictions on when in a pregnancy abortions may be performed, imposed limits on abortions using drugs instead of surgery and raised standards for clinics and the doctors who work in them.

The court took no action on a separate appeal from Mississippi.

Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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  1. Avatar for dnl dnl says:

    …and defense will present photographic evidence of why abortions should be allowed:

    Louie Gohmert
    Rick Perry
    Greg Abbot

    But Wait! There’s more…unfortunately.

  2. Yay!!! Another chance for Kennedy to fuck everything up!!!

  3. I’m glad TPM was calm about this decision to hear the case. Other sites are proclaiming the end of Roe in 8 months. That’s not the question before the Court and the hand wringing and fainting is a little much.

    Is it good if they rule in favor of Texas? No, but it’s not going to reverse the right to abortion.

  4. There’s very little info in this article. Is this an appeal from the State of Texas or an appeal from a citizen or group appealing a previous win for Texas?

  5. Texas won in TX (twice I believe) so the challengers appealed and the Court stayed the implementation of the law. Now they are hearing it. The question is whether the requirements that (1) abortion clinics have certain upgrades to make them more akin to ambulatory surgical centers (wider halls, etc) and (2) that doctors who perform abortions have admitting privileges within a certain mile radius present an ‘undue burden’ on the right to have an abortion.

    Since the requirements will and have closed clinics, it requires women to travel farther and longer to acquire abortions, so is that an undue burden? I expect it will be, but it’s hard to know.

    EDIT: Also, many doctors who perform abortions travel from out of state. Some for safety reasons and some because there are no local providers, so having admitting privileges is a tough work around. I can’t remember the state, but the local hospitals were all Catholic in one area and refused privileges to the doctors thereby closing the clinics.

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