And the resolution probably all comes down, once more, to 79-year-old Justice Anthony Kennedy.
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That means women in the Baton Rouge area who want an abortion will need to travel to New Orleans for the procedure, even though it will be performed by the same doctor who would have done the procedure in Baton Rouge.
The late Justice Antonin Scalia nearly certainly would have voted to uphold the law. Yet when these same politicians actually do hold elective office, they do nothing to stop abortions other than to tinker around the edges by passing laws requiring waiting periods, mandatory ultrasounds, limits on gestational periods, requiring admitting privileges for doctors and other non-medical restrictions that seek to restrict the constitutional right to an abortion.
At the same Georgetown University Law Center briefing, attorney and SCOTUSblog founder Tom Goldstein agreed that “the wind is in the sails” of those opposing the Texas law.
Still, with Scalia now gone, the dynamics of the court could shift.
On March 2, the U.S. Supreme Court will take up a Texas law similar to Louisiana’s that requires doctors to have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles clinics where they practice. With other states, including Florida and SC, adopting laws similar to those in Texas, all sides remain fully mobilized until a decision is rendered.
These politicians know full well that as these restrictions are struck down by the courts, and the Supreme Court refuses to take these cases for review, it only adds to the bulwark of Roe v. Wade, making it more hard for Roe to ever be overturned. One provision, not challenged before the Supreme Court, bans abortions after 20 weeks.
A 117-page document outlines the building standards and operations for so-called ambulatory surgical centers in Texas. Standards range from a minimum square-footage requirement to rules covering plumbing, heating, lighting and ventilation.
“This proves that hospital privilege requirements protect women from victimization and injury by shoddy, incompetent providers that have run amok over women’s health for years without accountability”, he said. Only one physician, close to retirement age, is left to perform all of the clinic’s surgical abortions.
The bill’s supporters often embraced broader moral justifications, with Sen.
Since the Republican-backed law was passed in 2013, many Texas clinics have closed. The clinic is now taking referrals from the other clinic that has closed.
For the three female and five male Supreme Court justices, now evenly divided between Republican and Democratic appointees, the relevant question is how the Texas law fares when scrutinized through the lens of the 1992 precedent. The New York Times described it as a “landmark case” that would answer the questions “Can the courts second-guess a legislature’s assertion that a rule promotes women’s health?” This is also called the “undue burden” test.
The application is directed to Justice Clarence Thomas, who by an order of the court on Thursday was assigned to hear such requests out of the 5th Circuit.
What is the status of abortion clinics in the New Orleans area?
Following the adoption of the law in Louisiana, the abortion clinics sued, and Judge John deGravelles said he would suspend the requirement.
Another national anti-abortion group, Americans United for Life, began using the 2005 Missouri law as model legislation for state activists targeting abortion clinics.
A lower appeals court upheld the Texas law.
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Days before the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in one of the biggest abortion rights cases in decades, reproductive rights advocates have asked the Court to step in and immediately block a different appellate court ruling that threatens to close all but one abortion clinic in Louisiana.
