US Supreme Court to hear Texas abortion Case

The U.S. Supreme Court's Friday decision to hear a case on abortion restrictions adopted by the Texas Legislature won't lead to a resolution of the bitter social divide over terminating pregnancy.

One part of the law requires all clinics in the state to meet the standards for "ambulatory surgical centers", including regulations concerning buildings, equipment and staffing.

Before Texas enacted a few of the requirements in 2013, 40 facilities provided abortion in the state.

The result will also help clarify the court's ruling in 1992's Planned Parenthood v. Casey, when a divided court determined that upheld a woman's right to abortion while allowing states to impose restrictions so long as they don't classify as an "undue burden", according to The NY Times. The Supreme Court has ruled the law can not take effect until the suit is played out in the courts.

The U.S. Supreme Court is taking on its first abortion case in eight years, a dispute over state regulation of abortion clinics. Undue burdens, it said, included "unnecessary health regulations that have the objective or effect of presenting a substantial obstacle to a woman seeking an abortion".

The justices will hear the case early next year, with a decision expected by late June.

Further implementation of the law "would cause profound and irreparable harm to the rights, health and dignity of women throughout Texas, the second-most populace state in the nation", the providers wrote in their brief.

"It's been shown that it does nothing to protect women's health", he said of the admitting privileges mandate. "I am disappointed that the Supreme Court did not let the lower court's ruling stand, but I am hopeful that this will be an opportunity for the justices to create a landmark case for the pro-life movement".

If upheld, Planned Parenthood says the decision would leave 5.4 million Texan women of reproductive age with only 10 abortion providers in their state.

After the announcement, Steven Aden, senior counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom, said the Texas law provides "common-sense protections that ensure the maximum amount of safety for women".

"The Texas law on which is it based is an outright attack on women and a shameless effort to ban almost all abortions in Texas", Ilyse Hogue, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, said in a statement.

OH does not require that abortion doctors have admitting privileges at hospitals, but it does require clinics to have transfer agreements with local hospitals and prohibits public hospitals from accepting transfer agreements from those clinics.

Abortion rights advocates said they feared the court's eventual ruling could reopen the abortion issue in the most far-reaching way since the court's historic 1973 ruling in the Roe v. Wade case legalized the procedure.

"While not our preference, the reality is that abortion will remain readily available in Texas and will continue to occur tens of thousands of times a year even if the Supreme Court allows HB 2 to go into effect".