The Supreme Court voted 5-4 in June to put the appeals court decision on hold, with Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito voting against the temporary delay:
“Without the Court’s intervention, the impact on Texas women will be immediate and devastating, imposing insurmountable burdens on their access to essential reproductive health care statewide,” said Nancy Northup, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights, which represents the abortion clinics.The abortion restrictions were passed after a two-year battle in 2013 by the Republican-dominated Texas legislature and would require all abortion facilities in the state to meet hospital-type building standards for “ambulatory surgical centers.” That means minimum sizes for rooms and doorways, special conduits for anesthesia, minimum closet space and other items. In addition, the law would require physicians who perform abortions to maintain admitting privileges at a local hospital.
Just the possibility of the law coming into effect has caused more than half the 41 abortion clinics in the state to shut their doors. Most of those cited the problem with doctors obtaining local admitting privileges, a requirement that physicians and reproductive rights activists say is medically unnecessary. The nine clinics that meet the building standards mandate are all in major urban centers. Activists say those standards are also medically unnecessary.
In Texas and in other states where similar laws imposing hospital-like building standards and admitting privileges for abortion providers have been put on the books, forced-birthers openly say their goal with these changes is to shut down as many clinics as they can. But for public consumption, they claim it's all done to protect the health of women. As if they actually cared. In fact, this assault on reproductive rights is one more element in an anti-choice crusade that began 42 years ago with Roe v. Wade and was ramped up with a deluge of new laws beginning in 2011.
In addition to the building standards and admitting privileges provisions, the new law bans abortion after 20 weeks gestation and requires visits to a clinic for medication abortions—those done by pill, something that can be accomplished with a physician's prescription without going to a clinic, as is still the case in some states. As Tara Culp-Ressler wrote three months ago, "In practice, this means the state of Texas will require abortion clinics to make hospital-style upgrades to their buildings to legally allow their patients to swallow pills." But those parts of the law are not under appeal.
The court is expected to announce whether it will take on the case in October or early November.