The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to block controversial Texas abortion restrictions that have been called some of the strictest in the country and have led a dozen abortion clinics in the state to stop performing the procedure.
The court by a 5-4 vote denied a request by Planned Parenthood to block a ruling by the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, allowing key parts of the Texas abortion law to stay in effect while the lawsuit challenging the restrictions moves forward.
The four liberal justices who voted in favor of the request said they would have overturned the appeals court's Oct. 31 ruling that allowed the law to take effect.
In its 20-page ruling, the panel of appeals court judges acknowledged that the law's provision requiring doctors to have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital "may increase the cost of accessing an abortion provider and decrease the number of physicians available to perform abortions."
