WASHINGTON — Abortion is back before the Supreme Court, and the justices could signal by the end of June whether they are likely to take up the biggest case on the hot-button subject in nearly a quarter-century.
If the court steps in, the hearing and the eventual ruling would come amid the 2016 presidential campaign.
The court is considering an emergency appeal from abortion providers in Texas, who want the justices to block two provisions of a state law that already has forced the closure of roughly half the licensed abortion clinics in the state. Ten of the remaining 19 clinics will have to shut their doors by July 1, without an order from the Supreme Court.
The provisions at issue in Texas require clinics to meet hospital-like surgical standards and require doctors who work in the clinics to have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital.
Backers of the law say those are common-sense measures intended to protect women. Abortion rights groups say the regulations have one aim: to make it harder, if not impossible, for women to get abortions in Texas.
