Abortion

Supreme Court Upholds Texas Ultrasound Injuction

Does this decision give us any idea of how the court would rule on other abortion restrictions?

Image: Lorton Patch.

The injunction against forcing women to look at an ultrasound and listen to a description of the fetus, including hearing its heart beat, has been upheld by the Supreme Court, after being enacted by Texas Judge Sam Sparks. 

Via The Houston Chronicle:

The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to overrule a federal judge’s preliminary injunction preventing the state of Texas from enforcing a strict abortion sonogram law scheduled to take effect on Saturday.

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott submitted an emergency application Wednesday night to Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia for the court to stay the preliminary injunction.

The setback triggered a wait-and-see response from Abbott.

“Our office continues to evaluate our options in defending the statute,” Abbott spokesman Jerry Strickland said Thursday afternoon.

The court refused to overturn the injuction that the federal judge put in place on the ultrasound law, after Sparks called it a violation of the First Amendment.

So does the Supreme Court’s decision give us any insight into how they might rule on any other cases that might come before them regarding abortion restrictions?  Not really, as the mandatory ultrasound itself was not blocked, just the part forcing a doctor to describe it and the patient to listen.  But it could bode well for the South Dakota mandatory counseling law, which would also be a violation of the First Amendment since it forces women to listen to “crisis pregnancy counselors” talk her out of having an abortion.