The Supreme Court blocked key parts of a 2013 Texas law that had closed all but eight abortion clinics in the state. The Court suspended rules requiring clinics to upgrade facilities to hospital standards and blocked admitting privileges requirements for two clinics. Only the admitting privileges provision remains in effect elsewhere in Texas. Justices Alito, Scalia, and Thomas disagreed with blocking the law. The fight over the Texas law is part of ongoing debates around new abortion restrictions passed in several states.

1. Supreme Court blocks parts of Texas abortion law
July 12, 2013: An anti-abortion protester holds a placard as protesters line the railing on the second
floor of the rotunda of the State Capitol as the state Senate meets to consider legislation restricting
abortion rights in Austin, Texas. (Reuters)
WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court on Tuesday blocked key parts of a 2013 law in Texas that had
closed all but eight facilities providing abortions in America's second
http://wnge.fielding.edu/profile/AmyKarlisle most-populous state.
In an unsigned order, the justices sided with abortion rights advocates and health care providers in
suspending an Oct. 2 ruling by a panel of the New Orleans-based U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals
that Texas could immediately apply a rule making abortion clinics statewide spend millions of dollars
on hospital-level upgrades.
The court also put on hold a separate provision of the law only as it applies to clinics in McAllen and
El Paso that requires doctors at the facilities to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals. The
admitting privileges remains in effect elsewhere in Texas.
Justices Samuel Alito, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas said they would have ruled against the
clinics in all respects.
The 5th Circuit is still considering the overall constitutionality of the sweeping measure
overwhelmingly passed by the GOP-controlled Texas Legislature and signed into law by Gov. Rick
Perry last year.
But even as it weighs the merits of the law, the appeals court said that it can be enforced in the
meantime -- opening the door for the emergency appeal to the Supreme Court.

2. The 5th Circuit decision had blocked an August ruling by Austin-based U.S. District Judge Lee
Yeakel, who had found that requiring hospital-style upgrades was less about safety than making
access to abortion difficult. Yeakel's ruling temporarily suspended the upgrade rules before they
could go into effect Sept. 1 -- and the order from the Supreme Court means they are on hold again.
Allowing the rules on hospital-level upgrades to be enforced -- including mandatory operating rooms
and air filtration systems -- shuttered more than a dozen clinics across Texas.
Until the nation's highest court intervened, only abortion facilities in the Houston, Austin, San
Antonio and the Dallas-Fort Worth areas remained open. And none was left along the Texas-Mexico
border or outside any of the state's largest urban areas.
Some other clinics, meanwhile, had closed even earlier amid enforcement of the rule on admitting
privileges at nearby hospitals. That portion has already been upheld twice by the appeals court.
The fight over the Texas law is the latest over tough new abortion restrictions that have been
enacted across the country. The office of Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, a Republican who is
the favorite in next month's governor's race, is leading the defense of the law.
Critics call the measure a backdoor effort to outlaw abortions.
Attorneys for the state have denied that Texas women would be burdened by fewer abortion
facilities, saying nearly 9 in 10 would still live within 150 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_school
miles of a provider. The law's opponents, however, note that still leaves nearly a million Texas
women embarking on drives longer than three hours to get an abortion.
Democrat Wendy Davis launched her campaign for governor behind the celebrity she achieved
through a nearly 13-hour filibuster last summer that temporarily blocked the law in the state Senate.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/10/14/supreme-court-blocks-parts-texas-abortion-law/