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Supreme Court blocks Louisiana abortion law.
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The Supreme Court Thursday blocked a Louisiana abortion access law from going into effect for now, dealing a victory to opponents of the law who argued it could decimate "safe and legal" abortions in the state. The order was 5-4 with Chief Justice John Roberts joining the court's four liberals voting for the stay. New conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote a dissent. Louisiana's Unsafe Abortion Protection Act has been blocked since its enactment in 2014, and requires a doctor to have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of the facility where the abortion is performed (admitting privilege is the right granted to a doctor to admit patients to a particular hospital). Louisiana argues that the law is necessary to provide a higher level of physician competence, but critics say there is no medical justification for the law and it amounts to a veiled attempt to unlawfully restrict abortion. The Supreme Court said that the restrictions constituted an undue burden on a woman's right to seek an abortion. Supporters of abortion rights fear that the court's conservative majority will move to chip away at abortion rights if not eventually all but overturn the landmark Supreme Court opinion of Roe v. Wade. According to the court, the law would severely limit the number of providers available to perform abortions, result in the closure of clinics and "place added stress" on remaining facilities. About 10,000 women a year seek abortions in the state and the challengers had shown that if the law were to go into effect, only one physician would be able to provide abortions in the state.
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