US Supreme Court Refuses to Let Texas Close 10 Abortion Clinics

By Lauren Gambino, Guardian UK

30 June 15

Justices rule 5-4 to grant emergency appeal from clinics that will for now prevent state from enforcing restrictions that would have caused clinics to close

he 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.

In a 5-4 decision, the justices granted an emergency appeal 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.

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 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 autumn, according to the Center for Reproductive Rights, which is representing the clinics in the challenge.

“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, said in a statement. “Now it’s time to put a stop to these clinic shutdown laws once and for all.”

On a press call with reporters, Northup said the court’s decision to stay the regulations from going into effect is a good sign that the justices will agree to hear the full appeal.

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.

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.

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.

The law was enacted by a Republican-led legislature in 2013. One month before 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 reopen.

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.”