WASHINGTON — The United States Supreme Court plans to make its most significant abortion ruling in decades after agreeing to consider the constitutionality of a Texas law that has shuttered many of the state’s abortion clinics.
In Whole Woman’s Health v. Cole, the high court will decide whether “an undue burden” has been placed on women seeking abortions because Texas now requires providers to have hospital admitting privileges. The Alabama legislature passed a similar law in 2013, but a federal judge blocked it.
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. If the clinic did not meet the requirement, their alternative was to contract with a local doctor who already had admitting privileges to serve as an outside covering physician.
The ACLU in July filed a lawsuit against the state in an effort to keep Tuscaloosa’s only abortion clinic, the West Alabama Women’s Center, open. The clinic had closed in January after its only doctor with admitting privileges retired and his replacement was unable to meet the state’s requirements.
A federal court ruled parts of the law unconstitutional in 2013, and in August of this year, U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson issued a temporary restraining order blocking its enforcement.
Thompson said abortion rights cannot be exercised without a provider, similar to how Second Amendment rights cannot be exercised without a place to buy weapons and ammunition.
“The evidence compellingly demonstrates that the requirement would have the striking result of closing three of Alabama’s five abortion clinics,” he wrote, “clinics which perform only early abortions, long before viability.”
Pro-abortion groups applauded the ruling.
“These admitting privileges were not designed to make women safer,” said Susan Watson, who heads the ACLU of Alabama. “We are proud to know that Alabama’s women will continue have access to safe and legal abortions.”
Legal experts Yellowhammer spoke with Friday said the Supreme Court’s impending decision will not impact Alabama if it rules in favor of the abortionists, but it could “breath life” back into Alabama’s law if the court rules in favor of the State of Texas.
Justice Anthony Kennedy will likely be the deciding vote.
“It is widely understood that as long as Kennedy is the deciding vote, nothing will infringe on the ‘right’ to on-demand abortion,” one pro-life attorney told Yellowhammer, “terribly unsafe facilities notwithstanding.”
The Supreme Court’s final ruling is expected in the summer of 2016.
Supreme Court to make massive abortion ruling that could impact Alabama pro-life law https://t.co/MT2RxHv1UW
— Cliff Sims (@Cliff_Sims) November 13, 2015
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