I’m a little surprised but hey, I’ll take it:
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday blocked key parts of a 2013 law in Texas that had closed all but eight facilities providing abortions in America’s second most-populous state.
In an unsigned order, the justices sided with abortion rights advocates and health care providers in suspending an Oct. 2 ruling by a panel of the New Orleans-based U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals that Texas could immediately apply a rule making abortion clinics statewide spend millions of dollars on hospital-level upgrades.
The court also put on hold a provision of the law only as it applies to clinics in McAllen and El Paso that requires doctors at the facilities to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals. The admitting privileges rule remains in effect elsewhere in Texas.
Justices Samuel Alito, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas said they would have ruled against the clinics in all respects.
The 5th Circuit is still considering the overall constitutionality of the sweeping measure overwhelmingly passed by the GOP-controlled Texas Legislature and signed into law by Gov. Rick Perry last year.
Even as it weighs the merits of the law, the appeals court had said it could be enforced — opening the door for the emergency appeal to the Supreme Court.
Ahhhh….the great state of Texas. Texas Health Resources Presbyterian Hospital, the center of the Ebola outbreak in America, is a “non-profit hospital.” They pay no federal, state or local taxes. All of the money (profit) they make goes to the Presbyterian Church of America to do with what they see fit. Most “non-profit” hospitals are located in the wealthier sections of town. They limit the number of Medicaid and Medicare patients that they will treat. Their prices are generally higher, their non-managerial wages are generally lower and for the most part they are unregulated. Why did the ACA leave our hospital delivery system intact? Another missed opportunity on the part of our Democratic politicians.