Abortion-rights groups ask Supreme Court to hear what could be key case

The Supreme Court now has on its appeal docket an abortion case that will probably decide how far conservative states may go in restricting abortion clinics.

Lawyers for the Center for Reproductive Rights filed an appeal Thursday to challenge a Texas law that would implement strict new health regulations that would force the closure of three-fourths of the state’s abortion facilities.

Twice, a federal appeals court has upheld key parts of the law. And twice, the justices have issued an emergency order barring the state from enforcing the disputed provisions.

Those moves strongly suggest the high court will take up the appeal and decide the constitutionality of the Texas law. If so, the decision next summer would be the court’s most important pronouncement on abortion in at least a decade.

At issue is not whether pregnant women have a legal right to seek an abortion, but instead what limitations states can impose on that right.

In the Texas case, lawyers said the state’s 2013 law, if fully enforced, would reduce the number of abortion clinics from 41 to 10. And they said women in much of Texas would be required to drive 150 miles or more one way to reach an open clinic unless they lived near Houston, Dallas, Austin or San Antonio.

Two provisions are in dispute. One would require doctors at a clinic to have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital. A second would require the clinics to meet the standards of an “ambulatory surgical center.”

Texas state lawyers say these requirements are designed to protect the health of women. Abortion-rights lawyers counter that they are designed to restrict abortions since so few clinics currently meet them.

In their appeal, abortion-rights advocates cite state data to argue that abortion is safe and additional protections are not needed. “In Texas, the risk of death from carrying a pregnancy to term is 100 times greater than the risk of death from having an abortion,” they said.

In June, judges of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the law and said the long distances to qualifying clinics did not put an “undue burden” on women seeking abortion.

The high court used that phrase in 1992 when it upheld Roe vs. Wade and the right to abortion. But the justices since then have not ruled further on what constitutes an “undue burden.” In their appeal, the abortion-rights lawyers say the state should have to prove that its medical regulations would actually serve the “interest in promoting health.”

“We’re hopeful that the Supreme Court will take a stand, hear our case and remind lawmakers that women’s health is not a game,” said Amy Hagstrom Miller, president of Whole Woman’s Health, the lead plaintiff in the case. “These restrictions have nothing to do with protecting women and everything to do with closing down clinics and pushing abortion care out of reach.”

Texas state lawyers will have 30 days to file a response and presumably say why the law should be allowed to go into effect. The justices will vote during the fall whether to hear arguments and decide the matter.

On Twitter: @DavidGSavage