The Supreme Court is poised Wednesday morning to hear the biggest abortion case in nearly a decade, as activists on both sides of the issue seize the opportunity to passionately argue over new, sweeping state regulations on the controversial procedure.
In the case Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt, the justices will consider whether Texas is within its constitutional rights to require abortion providers to meet higher facility standards and get hospital privileges or whether the state’s 2013 law goes too far in abridging women’s access to abortions.
The court’s decision could have a bearing on dozens of similar laws that Republican-led states have passed in recent years, although the recent death of conservative Justice Antonin Scalia has improved the prospects for an outcome more favorable to abortion-rights supporters.
Women’s groups, abortion opponents and congressional leaders, including House Speaker Paul Ryan, plan to rally in front of the court during the one-hour hearing Wednesday morning, in a continuation of the decades-long abortion wars that have recently focused on defunding Planned Parenthood, state regulations and abortion’s effect on women.
The bitter dispute is over whether Texas’ new abortion provider requirements are making abortions safer for women or whether they’re unnecessarily stringent. About half the state’s abortion clinics have shuttered since the measures were passed and that number is expected to decline more should the court uphold the legislation.
“It’s time to stop the charade that women’s rights are not under attack by partisan, conservative forces,” House Democratic Caucus Chairman Xavier Becerra said Tuesday.
During the oral arguments, all eyes will be on Justice Anthony Kennedy, who is expected to be the decisive vote on the issue. He has shown plenty of opposition to abortion in the past, writing the majority opinion in the 2007 Gonzales v. Carhart case upholding the federal ban on partial-birth abortion.
But in a good sign for abortion rights supporters, Kennedy sided with the liberal justices in the 1992 case Planned Parenthood v. Casey, upholding the Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion but also allowing states to regulate it before the point of viability.
Kennedy also sided with the liberal justices in June in issuing a stay on the Texas law until the court could rule on it.
Hundreds of lawmakers and dozens of medical societies and advocacy groups have filed amicus briefs with the Supreme Court over the law, which was upheld last year by the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.
While abortion rights supporters are hoping for a sweeping ruling striking similar restrictions around the country, the best hope of abortion opponents is for Kennedy to side with the conservative justices in a split decision that would keep the Fifth Circuit ruling in place.
“Can’t we agree that abortion facilities should be held to the same safety standards as other surgical outpatient centers?” said March for Life President Jeanne Mancini Tuesday. “Abortion proponents should care about safety, if they are truly pro-woman.”
