Abortion debate returns to depleted Supreme Court

WASHINGTON (AP) — The abortion debate is returning to the Supreme Court in the midst of a raucous presidential campaign and less than three weeks after Justice Antonin Scalia's death.

The justices today were taking up the biggest case on the topic in nearly a quarter-century, considering whether a Texas law that regulates abortion clinics hampers a woman's constitutional right to obtain an abortion.

The clinics want the court to roll back regulations requiring doctors who perform abortions to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals and forcing clinics to meet standards for outpatient or ambulatory surgical centers. Like other states, mainly in the South, Texas says it passed the measure to protect women's health.

On the sidewalk outside the court this morning, dozens of anti-abortion protesters chanted "pro-life, pro-woman" while hundreds of abortion rights advocates nearby shouted "abortion is a human right."

Justice Anthony Kennedy probably holds the deciding vote on the eight-justice court. He already joined with the court's four liberal members to block some restrictions from taking effect while the case was on appeal.

If Justice Kennedy sides with the liberal justices, the case could stand as an important reaffirmation of the standard the court first laid out in 1992 that allows states to regulate abortion provided the restrictions do not impose "an undue burden" on a woman's right to an abortion.