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U.S. Supreme Court strikes down Texas abortion clinic regulations

 
Renee Bracey Sherman of Chicago, Ill., celebrates at the Supreme Court in Washington, Monday, June 27, 2016, after the court struck down Texas' widely replicated regulation of abortion clinics .The justices voted 5-3 in favor of Texas clinics that had argued the regulations were a thinly veiled attempt to make it harder for women to get an abortion in the nation's second-most populous state. [Associated Press]
Renee Bracey Sherman of Chicago, Ill., celebrates at the Supreme Court in Washington, Monday, June 27, 2016, after the court struck down Texas' widely replicated regulation of abortion clinics .The justices voted 5-3 in favor of Texas clinics that had argued the regulations were a thinly veiled attempt to make it harder for women to get an abortion in the nation's second-most populous state. [Associated Press]
Published June 28, 2016

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday struck down Texas abortion restrictions that have been widely duplicated in other states, a resounding win for abortion-rights advocates in the court's most important consideration of the controversial issue in 25 years.

Justice Anthony Kennedy joined the court's liberals in the 5-3 decision, which said Texas' arguments that the restrictions on abortion clinics were to protect women's health were cover for making it more difficult to obtain an abortion.

What it means to Florida: Abortion law that goes into effect Friday could be undermined

The challenged Texas provisions required doctors who perform abortions at clinics to have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital and said that clinics must meet hospital-like standards of surgical centers.

Similar restrictions have been passed in other states, and officials say they protect patients. But the court's majority sided with abortion providers and medical associations who said the rules are unnecessary and so expensive or hard to satisfy that they force clinics to close.

Texas officials criticized the decision for what they described as judicial overreach that will endanger innocent lives.

"The decision erodes states' lawmaking authority to safeguard the health and safety of women and subjects more innocent life to being lost," Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, said in a statement. "Texas' goal is to protect innocent life, while ensuring the highest health and safety standards for women."

Kennedy, the court's pivotal justice on abortion rights, assigned the opinion to Justice Stephen Breyer. The court's liberal female justices, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, joined it.

Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito dissented.

The outcome of the Texas case turned on an interpretation of the court's ruling nearly 25 years ago in Planned Parenthood vs. Casey. Written by three justices, including Kennedy, it said states had a legitimate interest in regulating abortion procedures, but could not impose an "undue burden" on a woman's right to terminate a pregnancy before fetal viability.

Included in the description of such a burden was "unnecessary health regulations that have the purpose or effect of presenting a substantial obstacle to a woman seeking an abortion."

Breyer wrote that each of the Texas restrictions "provides few if any health benefits for women, poses a substantial obstacle to women seeking abortions and constitutes an 'undue burden' on their constitutional right to do so."

Ginsburg joined Breyer's opinion, but wrote separately to amplify its message, saying it fit within the court's previous rulings protecting abortion rights.

"So long as this Court adheres to Roe vs. Wade and Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pa. vs. Casey, Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers laws like HB 2 that 'do little or nothing for health but rather strew impediments to abortion' cannot survive judicial inspection," she wrote.

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The outcome would almost surely had been 5-4 had Justice Antonin Scalia not died in February and, in his dissent, Thomas quoted his friend. Monday's decision "exemplifies the court's troubling tendency 'to bend the rules when any effort to limit abortion, or even to speak in opposition to abortion, is at issue,' " Thomas wrote, quoting a Scalia dissent in a different case.

Alito also objected to the majority and read parts of his dissent from the bench to emphasize his disagreement.

"This is an abuse of our authority," Alito said, holding up the thick packet of regulations. The court had "no authority to strike down perfectly legal provisions."

He and Roberts said they would have returned the law to lower courts to tailor a more limited remedy that would have kept the law on the books.

President Barack Obama praised the ruling, saying that the restrictions in Texas "harm women's health and place an unconstitutional obstacle in the path of a woman's reproductive freedom."

Attorney General Loretta Lynch said Monday in a statement: "For many years, the Supreme Court has maintained that regulations with the purpose or effect of presenting a substantial obstacle to a woman seeking an abortion constitute an undue burden on women trying to exercise their reproductive freedom, and are contrary to principles enshrined in the Constitution. I am pleased that the Supreme Court has reaffirmed this long-standing principle in its decision today."

Abortion-rights advocates also hailed the decision. Nancy Northup, president and chief executive of the Center for Reproductive Rights, which led the litigation on behalf of the Texas clinics said: "Today women across the nation have had their constitutional rights vindicated. The Supreme Court sent a loud and clear message that politicians cannot use deceptive means to shut down abortion clinics."

If the law, called HB 2, were fully implemented, Northup had said, the number of clinics in the nation's second-largest state would have been reduced from more than 40 to about 10.

Leading Republicans in Texas, meanwhile, sharply criticized the court's ruling, with Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, saying that the ruling "sets a dangerous precedent" for the country.