Obama Admin. Asks SCOTUS to Reject Texas Abortion Regulations​

Brittany M. Hughes | January 6, 2016
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The Obama administration interjected its executive nose yesterday in the upcoming fight between pro-abortion advocates and the state of Texas, filing
an amicus brief asking the Supreme Court to overturn the state’s requirements that abortion clinics meet emergency center-like standards and have admitting privileges to a nearby hospital.

The requirements were signed into law in 2013, and if enacted would lead to the closure of half of the state’s 19 abortion clinics, according to a report from the Texas Tribune. The article adds many of Texas’ abortion clinics have already been forced to close after the state began requiring that all abortion providers have admitting privileges to a hospital within 30 miles of their clinic.

In the brief, U.S. Solicitor General Donald Verrilli claimed that “the admitting-privileges requirement and the ASC requirement…do not serve—in fact, they disserve—the government’s interest in protecting women’s health, and they would close most of the clinics in Texas, leaving many women in that State with a constitutional right that ‘exists in theory but not in fact.’”

The Supreme Court is set to hear oral arguments in the case on March 2, with a decision expected some time in the summer.

Texas is far from the first state to add these regulations to its rule book, meaning the upcoming Supreme Court decision could prove far more historic and far-reaching than simply determining what happens in Texas.

From the Tribune's report:

There are currently 10 states that have passed admitting privileges requirements, but courts have blocked their enforcement in six of those states, according to the Center for Reproductive Rights. Six states have enacted hospital-like ambulatory surgical center standards on abortion facilities. Those restrictions are not in effect in two of those states.

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