Here's a piece of good news for now , but a signal to cue up the heart attacks of the next Supreme Court term. The court blocked anti-abortion provisions in Texas while it decides whether to take up the related case.

The court acted to block part of the 2013 law that has already closed around half of the abortion clinics in Texas and, if the court had not acted now, would have closed another half of those still remaining open:



The case concerns two parts of a state law that imposes strict requirements on abortion providers. One requires all abortion clinics in the state to meet the standards for “ambulatory surgical centers,” including regulations concerning buildings, equipment and staffing. The other requires doctors performing abortions to have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital. [...] “This would amount to a more than 75 percent reduction in Texas abortion facilities in just a two-year period, creating a severe shortage of safe and legal abortion services in a state that is home to more than five million reproductive–age women,” lawyers for abortion providers told the justices in an emergency application for a stay.

The Court’s stay of the Texas abortion restrictions law makes it all but certain that the Justices will take up abortion rights next term. — SCOTUSblog (@SCOTUSblog) June 29, 2015

The stay is the good news. The nervewracking news:

If the court takes this case, we're almost certainly in for another five to four decision ... but it's which way that decision goes that's the heart-stopping part.