Texas abortion clinics have appealed to the Supreme Court in an emergency request, just days after 13 more clinics were forced to close overnight.
A sweeping Texas law restricting abortion was allowed to go into effect in full by the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, which in the petition the clinics say has had “a devastating impact on the availability of abortion services.” It also says the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals relied on a “demonstrably wrong application of the undue burden standard.”
That is the Supreme Court’s guiding precedent in an abortion case: whether it placed an undue burden on a woman.
The petition is preliminary and asks the Supreme Court to simply put the law on hold during the appeal. It points out that many of these clinics will never be able to reopen if they are closed for too long. The Supreme Court declined to halt in earlier provision of the law, which also closed many clinics.
Irin Carmon