The supreme court on Friday temporarily blocked a Louisiana abortion restriction that threatens to shut down all but one of the state’s four abortion clinics.  The ruling came just days after the justices heard arguments challenging a similar law in Texas. It could be taken as a sign that the Texas law is in trouble. Justice Clarence Thomas would have denied the abortion providers’ application for a stay, the ruling noted.  Related: Last two abortion providers in Louisiana see Texas as a cautionary tale  The order said the court’s action was in line with its decision in June to temporarily block part of the Texas abortion law. The justices heard oral arguments in that case on Wednesday.  The law in Louisiana is a 2014 measure that requires all abortion providers to have admitting privileges – the ability to admit and treat patients – at a hospital no more than 30 miles from the clinic.  Mainstream medical groups have repeatedly said that admitting privileges are not necessary to make abortion safer than it already is. In mid-January, John deGravelles, a federal judge in Baton Rouge, ruled that the law was unconstitutional.  The state of Louisiana appealed to a three-judge panel drawn from the fifth circuit court of appeals, the nation’s most conservative circuit. On 25 February, the fifth circuit court of appeals ruled that the law could go into effect while the state of Louisiana appealed.  The ruling plunged Louisiana clinics into chaos. Only two Louisiana abortion providers out of six have admitting privileges. For the past week, only two abortion clinics in the state, in New Orleans and Shreveport, have been able to provide the procedure.  The supreme court’s ruling allows clinics in Baton Rouge and Bossier City to reopen immediately.  “Just two days after arguing our case before the supreme court to strike down a similar sweeping law in Texas, we look to the justices to put an end to these sham measures threatening women’s rights, health and lives across the US,” said Nancy Northrup, the president of the Center for Reproductive Rights, whose attorneys are representing Louisiana abortion providers.  Louisiana is a state with nearly 1 million women of reproductive age. The week that the law was in effect gave abortion rights supporters a glimpse at the difficulties of providing for that many women with only two working clinics.  The two doctors who were able to keep performing abortions accounted for less than half of all abortions in Louisiana in 2013. One of the doctors, who works for Hope Medical Group in Shreveport, has testified that he would not continue to provide the procedure if he was the only abortion provider in the northern part of the state. His fears of harassment and violence were too great.  Related: Quarter of US abortion clinics have closed over last five years, report says  “It has been a tremendous hardship for our patients,” Sylvia Cochran, the administrator at the Women’s Health Care Center in New Orleans, said last week. Hers was one of the two clinics that was still providing abortions. “We’re already getting an influx of women and it has already increased our wait times.”  Rochelle Tafolla, a spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood of the Gulf Coast, called it a “nightmare”. She noted that the clinic up and running in Baton Rouge, Hope Medical Group, was already treating hundreds of women driving over the border from Texas, after a similar law shut down half of that state’s clinics.  “It is impossible for one to two physicians to provide services for all the women in Louisiana in need of abortion care,” said Kathaleen Pittman, a spokeswoman for Hope Medical Group.  Supporters of the Louisiana law say it is necessary to ensure that women having complications from abortions receive continuous care if they require hospitalization. It is an argument major medical groups reject. The American Medical Association places the risk of a major incident between 0.05% and 0.2% – abortion providers rarely meet a hospital’s particular requirements. “Privileges requirements do nothing to protect the health and safety of women and are incongruous with modern medical practice,” the group wrote in a brief to the supreme court.  Before Louisiana’s law took effect, five out of the state’s six abortion providers made 13 different attempts to secure admitting privileges at nearby hospitals. Several doctors struggled to get the necessary references from hospital staff, deGravelles ruled, because of fears about being associated with abortion.  • Reuters contributed to this report
Court grants request seeking to reinstate a lower-court injunction that blocked law that required doctors to obtain a formal affiliation with a hospital