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US supreme court refuses to let Texas close 10 abortion clinics US supreme court refuses to let Texas close 10 abortion clinics
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Related: Court upholds Texas abortion law that could leave state with only seven clinicsRelated: Court upholds Texas abortion law that could leave state with only seven clinics
The US supreme court refused on Monday to allow Texas to enforce restrictions that would force 10 abortion clinics to close. The US supreme court stepped in to postpone reproductive-rights restrictions that would have left the vast state of Texas with fewer than 10 abortion clinics, allowing healthcare providers and women’s rights groups time to petition the nation’s highest tribunal to review their fate.
The justices voted 5-4 to grant an emergency appeal from the clinics after a federal appeals court upheld new regulations and refused to keep them on hold while the clinics appealed to the supreme court. In a 5-4 decision, the justices agreed to suspend a ruling from a federal appellate court that upheld the most extreme provisions of Texas’s anti-abortion law. Chief justice John Roberts and his fellow conservative justices – Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito – all dissented.
The supreme court order will remain in effect at least until the court decides whether to hear the clinics’ appeal of the lower court ruling, not before the fall. Earlier this month, a three-judge panel on the fifth US circuit court of appeals, one of the nation’s most conservative courts, found that Texas could require abortion clinics to meet hospital-level operating standards, which opponents say are too expensive for small providers and clinics.
The court’s decision to block the regulations is a strong indication that the justices will hear the full appeal, which could be the biggest abortion case at the supreme court in nearly 25 years. The supreme court’s surprise blockade on the shutdown still leaves the second most populous state in the US with just nine abortion clinics until at least the fall, according to the Center for Reproductive Rights, which brought the challenge.
If the court steps in, the hearing and the eventual ruling would come amid the 2016 presidential campaign. “The justices have preserved Texas women’s few remaining options for safe and legal abortion care for the moment,” said Nancy Northup, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights. “Now it’s time to put a stop to these clinic shutdown laws once and for all.”
Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Samuel Alito, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas would have allowed the state to move ahead with regulations requiring abortion facilities to be constructed like surgical centers. Doctors at all clinics also would be forced to have admitting privileges at a local hospital. Following the ruling by the fifth circuit court of appeals, healthcare providers asked the supreme court to temporarily stay the verdict from taking effect until the court decides whether to hear a full appeal.
The clinics said enforcing the new regulations would lead to a second major wave of clinic closures statewide in as many years. Texas had 41 abortion clinics in 2012; 19 remain. This is the second time the supreme court has intervened to block the Texas law from shutting down more than half of the state’s remaining abortion clinics, including once before the fifth circuit court of appeals ruled in the case. The interference then allowed the clinics to remain open while the appeals process played out.
The regulations would have left the state with no clinic west of San Antonio. Only one would have been able to operate on a limited basis in the Rio Grande Valley. Texas’s omnibus law – known as HB2 – is part of a legislative trend to limit access to abortions by regulating facilities, providers and doctors. The added red tape forces clinics that cannot afford to make the upgrades to close. Moreover, hospitals often require doctors to admit a minimum number of patients before they are granted admitting privileges.
In November 2013, Justice Stephen Breyer wrote that four justices probably would want to review the constitutionality of the regulations. The law was enacted by a Republican-led legislature in 2013. One month prior to its approval, there were 41 clinics in Texas that provided abortions, according to a study by the Texas Policy Evaluation Project at the University of Texas. By May 2014, there were only 22 clinics where women could legally end their pregnancies.
There are currently only 19 clinics open statewide, according to the Center for Reproductive Rights, though they said the stay may allow some of the clinics to re-open.
Former Texas governor Rick Perry, who is currently running for the Republican nomination in 2016, said he is confident the law passed while he was in office would be upheld by the court.
“The supreme court’s stay unnecessarily puts lives in danger by allowing unsafe facilities to continue to perform abortions,” Perry said in a statement on Monday. “I am confident the court will ultimately uphold these commonsense measures to protect the health and safety of Texas women.”