Supreme Court temporarily blocks Louisiana abortion law

Abortion protesters at the Supreme Court

(Image credit: SAUL LOEB / Getty Images)

published 2 February 2019

The Supreme Court delayed implementation of a Louisiana abortion law late Friday night, putting the legislation on hold until Thursday.

An order from Justice Samuel Alito said the court needs more time to review the case concerning the Unsafe Abortion Protection Act, which requires abortion providers to have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of their facilities. The delay "does not reflect any view regarding the merits" of the case, Alito noted.

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The Unsafe Abortion Protection Act was struck down by a U.S. district court in 2017 on the grounds that it would shutter too many abortion providers in Louisiana. But that ruling was reversed by the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, which found the law would not "impose a substantial burden on a large fraction of women" because Louisiana has relatively lax rules for granting admitting privileges and many abortion providers simply have not applied.

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Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.

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