US Supreme Court strikes down Texas abortion law

In a landmark ruling on Monday, the US Supreme Court threw out a 2013 Texas state law that imposed crippling restrictions on abortion clinics.

In a landmark ruling on Monday, the US Supreme Court threw out a 2013 Texas state law that imposed crippling restrictions on abortion clinics, shutting them down many of them.

Pro-choice activists celebrate on the steps of the US Supreme Court in Washington on Monday. In a 5-3 decision, the Supreme Court struck down one of the nation's toughest restrictions on abortion, a Texas law that women's groups said would have forced more than three-quarters of the state's clinics to close. (AFP)

The apex court’s ruling, touted as a major victory for abortion rights advocates, makes similar restrictions placed on clinics in other states unconstitutional.

The 2013 Texas law, passed by a Republican-led state legislature and signed by a Republican governor, required doctors performing abortions to have admitting privileges at hospitals. It also demanded abortion clinics should meet hospital-like surgical standards.

Pro-choice and pro-life activists demonstrate on the steps of the US Supreme Court in Washington on Monday.

Together, abortion advocates argued, these requirements made it impossible for abortion clinics to survive, and many of them shut down.

In the majority opinion, justice Stephen G Breyer wrote that “each restriction” provides few if any health benefits for women, poses a substantial obstacle to women seeking abortions and constitutes an “undue burden” on their constitutional right to do so.