After the Supreme Court voted 5-4 to temporarily block a Texas law that would have shut down almost a dozen of its 19 abortion clinics, advocates are now exploring whether it's possible to reopen some clinics that had previously closed. Jim Vertuno
reports:
“We may have gotten more than we even asked for,” said Amy Hagstrom Miller, chief executive of Whole Woman’s Health, which sued to overturn the law. But she cautioned that reopening clinics would be expensive and difficult, not just “a turn of the key and turn on the lights.” [...]
Both sides agree the two-paragraph order blocks a requirement that would mandate abortion facilities be constructed like surgical centers. It was the final major component of the 2013 law set to take effect.
Abortion providers also said they were analyzing whether the order goes further and temporarily wipes out an additional requirement that abortion doctors have admitting privileges at local hospitals.
But Joe Pojman, executive director of Texas Alliance for Life, said the doctor requirements have been in place since a 2014 legal decision and stay in place.
The court's order will remain in place until the justices decide whether to hear an appeal of the original ruling, likely this fall. If they do, it could be one of the most important abortion cases to reach the Supreme Court in decades.