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Supreme Court decision on abortion could impact Alabama law

But the petitioner, a self-described “privately-owned feminist organisation, committed to providing holistic care for women”, says these are sham justifications.

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The clinic is challenging the Texas law that imposed new medical regulations that would in effect shut down three-fourths of Texas’ abortion clinics, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The Supreme Court will be hearing about a dispute over two provisions in the abortion law, signed by Gov. Rick Perry last 2013, the first of which requires abortion facilities to be set up like surgical clinics and the second only allows clinicians to perform the procedure if the clinics have admitting privileges at one of the local hospitals.

Conservative groups that approve of the laws say they’ll protect women and prevent abuses like the case of Dr. Kermit Gosnell, a Philadelphia abortion provider sentenced to life in jail for first-degree murder whose clinic was described as a filthy house of horrors. “Medical uncertainty underlying a statute is for resolution by legislatures, not the courts”.

Derzis operated the New Woman All Women abortion clinic on Birmingham’s south side for several years. Women can get very similar procedures to abortions, for instance when they’re having a miscarriage, in a doctor’s office in many states. The justices have up until June to make a final decision. Casey, decided in 1992, laid down a moderate principle defining when an abortion restriction is constitutionally permissible.

“The Supreme Court now has the opportunity to confirm that states have a legitimate and compelling interest in better ensuring the safety and health of women who enter abortion clinics”, said Sarah Torre and Elizabeth Slattery of the conservative Heritage Foundation. But it is unconstitutional to force women to notify their spouses before ending their pregnancies. “A woman’s very right to make personal medical decisions about abortion is now before the court”, said Cecile Richards, President of Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

The abortion case at hand, however, is anticipated to be the most significant in this term. (The district court undertook this analysis; the Fifth Circuit demurred.) If they see it as their rule to dive into the weeds, the challenge becomes conceptual. A law is not an undue burden, pro-life activists say, unless it takes a major toll on abortion access.

The Court’s answer will resonate well beyond the borders of the Lone Star state. This led to the closure of many clinics, and today, in one of the largest states in the continental US, only 18 abortion clinics remain open in Texas.

On Friday, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton issued a statement saying HB 2 was about the standard of care for women, rather than an attempt to limit access to abortion clincs.

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The Supreme Court is to decide whether or not the provisions will cause an undue burden on women’s constitutional right to abortion. But if the Court finds no constitutional problem with the Texas law, Roe v Wade will be profoundly curtailed and the tide of abortion restrictions in America will likely continue to flow.

Supreme Court to hear first major abortion case in 8 years