Divided US Supreme court votes 5-4 to freeze Texas abortion law as it mulls whether to hear appeal
By a 5-4 vote, the nation’s top court on Monday stayed enforcement by the state of Texas of a state law that could have forced nine abortion clinics to close by July 1.
Now the clinics can remain open until the U.S. Supreme Court decides whether to hear an appeal of the law. It requires facilities that provide abortions to operate as surgical centers and says doctors who work there must have admitting privileges at a local hospital, according to Bloomberg, the New York Times (reg. req.) and USA Today.
Other parts of the law took effect in 2013, requiring about half the state’s abortion providers to close.
If enforcement of the provisions now at issue had not been frozen by the supreme court, “This would amount to a more than 75 percent reduction in Texas abortion facilities in just a two-year period,” wrote counsel for abortion providers in an emergency stay application. That would have created “a severe shortage of safe and legal abortion services in a state that is home to more than five million reproductive-age women.”
