US Supreme Court
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In a historic decision, the most significant in fifteen years, the Supreme Court rejected Texas policy that made abortion clinic workers have hospital admission privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of the abortion clinic, and that the abortion clinic meet higher standards required of an outpatient surgical center.
These requirements were put in place to make it too difficult for most abortion clinics to operate.
The vote was five to three in favor of the abortion clinics applying for relief.
The LA Times reports,
""We conclude that neither of these provisions [on admitting privileges and surgical center requirements] offers medical benefits sufficient to justify the burdens upon access that each imposes," Justice Stephen Breyer said for the majority. "Each places substantial obstacles in the path of women seeking a previability abortion, each constitutes an undue burden on abortion access, and each violates the federal Constitution."Justices Alito, Roberts and Thomas were the dissenting justices.He was joined by Justices Anthony Kennedy, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan.
In a concurring opinion, Ginsburg said it "is beyond rational belief that [the Texas law] could genuinely protect the health of women and certain that the law would simply make it more difficult for them to obtain abortions." She said closing licensed abortion providers could force "women in desperate circumstances [to] resort to unlicensed rogue practitioners.""
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