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 The laws in Mississippi and Wisconsin required doctors to have
"admitting privileges," a type of difficult-to-obtain formal
affiliation, with a hospital within 30 miles (48 km) of the abortion
clinic. Both were put on hold by lower courts.
The Mississippi law would have shut down the only clinic in the
state if it had gone into effect.
"This is what we've been waiting on," Shannon Brewer, director of
the Jackson Women's Health Organization clinic in Mississippi, said
in a telephone interview. "We've been on pins and needles not
knowing when this ruling would come down. This is a wonderful
victory for us."
In addition, Alabama's attorney general said late on Monday that his
state would abandon defense of its own "admitting privileges"
requirement for abortion doctors, in light of the Supreme Court's
ruling.
The laws in Texas, Mississippi, Wisconsin and Alabama are among the
numerous measures enacted in conservative U.S. states that impose a
variety of restrictions on abortion. But the Supreme Court's ruling
on Monday in the Texas case, providing its most stout endorsement of
abortion rights since 1992, could imperil a variety of these state
laws.
Conservative Justice Anthony Kennedy joined the court's four
liberals in the 5-3 decision.
Alabama's Republican attorney general, Luther Strange, said that
"there is no good faith argument that Alabama's law remains
constitutional in light of the Supreme Court ruling."
Jennifer Dalven, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union,
said the action in Mississippi, Wisconsin and Alabama is just the
start of the fallout from Monday's ruling.
"States have passed more than 1,000 restrictions on a woman's
ability to get an abortion. This means for many women the
constitutional right to an abortion is still more theoretical than
real and there is much more work to be done to ensure that every
woman who needs an abortion can actually get one," Dalven added.
The justices decided that the Texas law placed an undue burden on
women exercising their right under the U.S. Constitution to end a
pregnancy, established in the court's landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade
decision..
The ruling is likely to encourage abortion rights advocates to
challenge similar restrictive laws in other states.
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In November 2015, the Chicago-based 7th U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals struck down the Wisconsin law.
In the Mississippi case, a federal district court judge issued a
temporary injunction in 2012 blocking the law because it would have
forced women seeking abortions to go out of state. The same judge
issued a second injunction in 2013, which was upheld by the New
Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 2014.
The high court's ruling on Monday also tossed out a provision in the
Texas law requiring abortion clinics to have costly hospital-grade
facilities in addition to the "admitting privileges" mandate.
Some states have pursued a variety of restrictions on abortion,
including banning certain types of procedures, prohibiting it after
a certain number of weeks of gestation, requiring parental
permission for girls until a certain age, imposing waiting periods
or mandatory counseling, and others.
In May, Oklahoma's Republican-led legislature passed a bill calling
for prison terms of up the three years for doctors who performed
abortions, but the state's Republican governor vetoed it.
(Reporting by Lawrence Hurley. Additional reporting by Colleen
Jenkins.; Editing by Will Dunham)
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