By: Ryan E. Poppe, KSTX 89.1
TEXAS-In a move that surprised even abortion-rights advocates, the US Supreme Court voted 6 to 3 to block the state of Texas from enforcing a provision of the state’s abortion law, overturning the U.S. 5th Circuit Court stay on a lower court’s injunction. Texas Public Radio’s Ryan Poppe reports.
The Supreme Court has, in the past, refused to take up a similar appeal regarding the law’s admitting privileges requirement. Therefore, those fighting provisions in Texas’ abortion law were unsure if the court would even take up their appeal of a decision that allowed the state to enforce ambulatory-surgical center requirements under House Bill 2. Those requirements would effectively shut down all but seven clinics in the state.
David Brown is an attorney with the Center for Reproductive Rights, the group representing some of the clinics that have sued the state.
BROWN: “It’s unusual for the Supreme Court to do what it did and so we’re very pleased. And we know that it’s legally correct,” he says.
The ruling immediately reinstates Austin Federal District Judge Lee Yeakel’s decision. That ruling had blocked the state from enforcing not only the ambulatory-surgical center requirements but also the admitting privilege requirements for clinics in McAllen and El Paso — the only clinics remaining in south and west Texas, an area of the state that now has the attention of the US Supreme Court. RP TPR News]
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