UPDATE::Court blocks abortion limits in Texas : SCOTUSblog

Over the dissents of three Justices, the Supreme Court on Tuesday evening barred Texas from enforcing two parts of its new abortion-restriction law — one part as it applied throughout the state, the other as it applied to two clinics in the southwest part of the state.

The state may not now enforce a requirement that all clinics in the state upgrade their facilities to be hospital-like surgical centers, even when they perform abortions only through the use of drugs, not surgery. And it may not enforce, against the clinics in McAllen and El Paso, a requirement that all doctors performing abortions have privileges to admit patients to a hospital within thirty miles of the clinic. That requirement can continue to be enforced elsewhere in Texas, the Court indicated.

Those two provisions, together, had reduced the number of clinics still operating in the state to seven, with an eighth soon to open. At one time recently, Texas had forty-one clinics. The Supreme Court’s action Tuesday will allow the reopening of thirteen closed clinics on Wednesday, lawyers for the clinics said.

The Court’s order will remain in effect while the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit rules on a constitutional challenge to the two measures. That court had previously upheld the admitting privileges requirement as it applied all across the state. Most recently, it had blocked a new ruling by a judge in Austin that seemed to invalidate the two provisions statewide.

The Supreme Court gave no explanation for the four-sentence order. It noted that Justices Samuel A. Alito, Jr., Antonin Scalia, and Clarence Thomas would have refused to delay any part of the state requirements. They did not give their reasoning. It would have taken the votes of five Justices to block the provisions, so it appears that at least that number from among the other six Justices voted for the result. The Justices voting for the order were not noted.

In asking the Court to set aside, temporarily, the Fifth Circuit’s orders permitting enforcement of the two provisions, lawyers for the clinics had said that clinics closed as a result probably would not reopen unless those restrictions were lifted. They also contended that there had recently been an increase in the number of women seeking illegal abortions in areas where clinics could no longer provide service

Court blocks abortion limits in Texas : SCOTUSblog

UPDATE::Attorneys For Abortion Clinics File An Appeal With SCOTUS | Texas Public Radio

A national abortion-rights group has filed an appeal with the US Supreme Court. The Center for Reproductive Rights is asking justices to reinstate a lower court’s order that blocks the State of Texas from enforcing its ambulatory surgical center requirements.

They're hoping a SCOTUS appeal will reverse the US 5th Circuit Court’s decision to allow the state to enforce this portion of Texas’ Abortion law while they await a full hearing. Looking at a similar appeal concerning the state’s enforcement of the law’s admitting privileges requirement, this request could prove to be an uphill challenge.

Esha Bhandari is staff attorney with the Center for Reproductive Rights and said, “We think this case is different from the admitting privileges case because the impact is so drastic, leaving 7-clinics in such a large state is simply not enough and women’s constitutional rights are at risk.”

Attorneys For Abortion Clinics File An Appeal With SCOTUS | Texas Public Radio

13 Abortion Clinics Forced to Close Overnight in Texas | Alternet

Thirteen abortion clinics in Texas were forced to close overnight as a result of a Thursday ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Texas, the second largest and the second most populous state in the country, will now have only eight abortion clinics to serve its more than five million women of reproductive age.

The decision upheld Texas’ House Bill 2’s requirement that abortion clinics meet ambulatory surgical center standards. These centers are hospital-like centers abortion providers say are unnecessary for a relatively simple procedure that often takes five to ten minutes.

This ruling by a three-judge panel overturns U.S. District Court’s Judge Lee Yeakel’s August decision that found HB2’s surgical center rule unconstitutional. He said that the rule placed an undue burden on women trying to access abortion services and that the reduction of clinics in such a large state functioned “just as drastically as a complete ban on abortion.”

This is the second time the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, a notoriously conservative federal appellate court, has overturned Yeakel’s rulings. Several months ago, they overturned his decision that HB2’s admitting-privileges rule was also unconstitutional.

HB2 has already closed half of Texas’ abortion clinics. The state went from 41 in June 2013 to 20 in June 2014. Today, the state has eight.

13 Abortion Clinics Forced to Close Overnight in Texas | Alternet