Supreme Court refuses to block Texas abortion restrictions

The abortion fight in Texas The debate over abortion has been a contentious one in Texas. See photos from the abortion fight in the Lone Star State. The abortion fight in Texas The debate over abortion has been a contentious one in Texas. See photos from the abortion fight in the Lone Star State. Photo: Houston Chronicle/Associated Press Photos Photo: Houston Chronicle/Associated Press Photos Image 1 of / 38 Caption Close Supreme Court refuses to block Texas abortion restrictions 1 / 38 Back to Gallery

AUSTIN – A divided U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed a key Texas abortion restriction to remain in effect while it's under legal challenge.

The decision was 5-4, said Attorney General Greg Abbott's office.

Abortion providers are suing to stop restrictions in the new law that were scheduled to take effect in late October, including a provision requiring doctors who perform abortions to have admitting privileges within 30 miles of the clinic where the procedure is performed.

U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel in late October issued an injunction to halt the admitting-privileges requirement. He said it unconstitutionally imposed an undue burden on women seeking an abortion and didn't have a rational relationship to improved care.

But a panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals disagreed with Yeakel and lifted the injunction.

The 5th Circuit, which is considering the constitutionality of the law, said there was a substantial likelihood that Texas will prevail in arguments defending the admitting-privileges requirement. It plans to hear arguments in January.

Planned Parenthood and others who brought the lawsuit appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court to reinstate the injunction. They argued the requirement is causing many clinics to close or curtail services.

Justice Antonin Scalia initially got the case as the justice who oversees Texas, but he was allowed to invite the entire court to participate in the decision.

Scalia was joined by two other justices in his reasoning against reinstating the injunction. He wrote that the Supreme Court may not lift a stay by a court of appeals unless the lower court clearly and demonstrably erred in its application of "accepted standards"

Justice Stephen Breyer, joined by three justices in his dissent, wrote that as a practical matter, the lifting of the injunction meant that abortion clinics in Texas with doctors who don't have the required admitting privileges were forced to cease offering them.

He wrote that while the state denied the assertion that 20,000 women in Texas would be left without service, "it provides no assurance that a significant number of women seeking abortions will nto be affected."

Breyer wrote that the status quo existing before the law should be maintained "while the lower courts consider this difficult, sensitive and controversial legal matter."