Texas’ limits on abortion clinics struck down
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court struck down a Texas law Monday that was blamed for the closing of three out of four abortion clinics in the state.
The decision sends a warning shot to other conservative states that cite medical safety issues in applying new restrictions on abortion clinics.
The 5-3 ruling capped the court’s term and marked the justices’ latest boundary setting for legislators who try to impose abortion-related restrictions.
“Neither of these (challenged) provisions offers medical benefits sufficient to justify the burdens upon access that each imposes,” Justice Stephen Breyer wrote in the majority opinion Monday. “Each places a substantial obstacle in the path of women seeking ... abortion, each constitutes an undue burden on abortion access and each violates the federal Constitution.”
Breyer was joined by Justice Anthony Kennedy, a Republican appointee, and liberal Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor in the decision.
Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. joined Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito in dissent. “That 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.
With a 5-3 ruling, the addition of the late Justice Antonin Scalia would have made no difference to the outcome. Nor would the addition of a liberal appointee to replace him.
One of the most closely watched cases of the Supreme Court’s term, the dispute divided states and reignited passions on all sides of the abortion issue. While California, Washington and a dozen other states sided with Whole Woman’s Health, more than 20 states — including Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Kansas and South Carolina — supported Texas.
All the states will be guided in their future abortion-policy decisions by the court’s decision, and some of the other states’ laws could quickly fall.
“Today’s ruling should send a clear message to legislators that measures aimed at curtailing a woman’s constitutional right to have an abortion will not be tolerated,” American Constitution Society President Caroline Fredrickson said in a statement.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., praised the 40-page decision as a “significant victory for women’s reproductive rights,” while President Barack Obama declared himself pleased.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott countered that “the decision erodes states’ law-making authority to safeguard the health and safety of women and subjects more innocent life to being lost.”
“Common-sense requirements that abortion clinics be held to the same standards as other medical facilities put the health of the patient first,” said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas.