In a key victory for abortion advocates, moments ago the Supreme Court voted to strike down a Texas law regulating the state’s abortion clinics, finding the rules were an “undue burden” on a woman’s right to terminate her pregnancy. The court’s 5-3 decision tosses out a previous ruling by an appellate court, which abortion rights activists warned would have sweeping implications for millions of women in Texas.
The Texas law, signed in 2013 by then-Gov. Rick Perry, required abortion clinics to meet the standards of ambulatory surgical centers and mandated that physicians performing the procedure maintain admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles.
Abortion-rights advocates said that if fully implemented, nearly every clinic outside major cities such as Dallas and Houston would have closed, eliminating ready access to the procedure for women across the vast state.
Monday’s decision dooms similar measures in other states, including a Wisconsin admitting-privileges law that a federal appeals court in Chicago found unconstitutional last year. Such abortion regulations officially have been championed as efforts to protect the health of women seeking abortion, rather than an attempt to stop them from ending their pregnancies.
But in the face of a Supreme Court majority open to regulating abortion but not withdrawing the right it recognized in 1973, foes of the procedure have turned to legislation that restricts rather than outlaws it.
The full ruling below courtesy of The Hill:
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