Supreme Court agrees to take on major abortion case

Timing of decision means ruling will come next June as presidential race in high gear

A pro-choice demonstrator holds up a placard outside the US Supreme Court (rear) in Washington, DC, 08 November 2006 as the court hears oral arguments in the partial-birth abortion ban case. The court is weighing in on the constitutionality of a law banning a surgical method to terminate a pregnancy (JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images)

Ensuring that the battle over abortion rights will land plumb-centre in the American presidential race next year, the Supreme Court said yesterday that it intends hearing arguments in a case brought against a new Texas law that has already severely curtailed access to abortions in the state.

The case, Whole Woman’s Health v. Cole, is likely to be heard early in the New Year with a ruling expected therefore before the end of the Court’s current session next June.

Texas has been one of several states governed by Republicans which have pushed through new laws that effectively circumscribe the ability of women to seek terminations and challenge the broad current legal status quo that was laid down in the 1973 Roe v Wade ruling.

The issue continues to ignite passions in the United States. Democrats and their likely presidential nominee, Hillary Clinton, have vowed to protect a woman’s right to choose while many on the conservative wing of the Republicans are pushing hard to narrow access to legal abortions.

Simultaneously, Republicans in Congress are seeking to strip funding from Planned Parenthood, which operates women’s clinics around the country some of which offer abortion services, after activists secretly videotaped some of its executives discussing providing fetal tissues for medical research, allegedly to generate profits. The network has insisted it only accepts money to cover costs.

After first provisions of the Texas law came into effect insisting that doctors working at abortion facilities are credentialed to practice at a nearby hospital, half of all the existing clinics in the state were forced to close. If the full law is backed by the Supreme Court another nine clinics would probably be shut their doors, leaving just 10 open across the state compared to over 40 before the law. Many women, particularly the poor, would simply have no means of visiting them.

Among the leading Republican runners for the White House, none may be more radical on the issue than Dr Ben Carson, who has said he would seek to overturn Roe v Wade and he even opposes making exceptions for women seeking to terminate pregnancies arising from rape or incest.