The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected a request from Texas abortion providers to send their case challenging the state's six-week abortion ban back to a federal district judge. 

What You Need To Know

  • The Supreme Court on Thursday stymied another attempt by healthcare providers to block Texas’ six-week abortion ban

  • Abortion providers wanted their lawsuit sent back to a federal court in Austin that so far has been the only one to block the restrictions

  • Three of the court’s more liberal justices – Sonia Sotomayor, Stephen Breyer and Elena Kagan – issued a blistering dissent against the decision

  • Last month, the high court ruled that abortion providers can challenge the case, but kept the law in effect

The high court's three liberal justices – Sonia Sotomayor, Stephen Breyer and Elena Kagan – issued a blistering dissent against the decision.

"This case is a disaster for the rule of law and a grave disservice to women in Texas, who have a right to control their own bodies,” Sotomayor wrote in part. “I will not stand by silently as a State continues to nullify this constitutional guarantee. I dissent."

"Instead of stopping a Fifth Circuit panel from indulging Texas’ newest delay tactics, the Court allows the State yet again to extend the deprivation of the federal constitutional rights of its citizens through procedural manipulation," she wrote.

"The Court may look the other way, but I cannot," Sotomayor wrote.

The Texas law that bans abortion once cardiac activity is detected — usually around six weeks, before some women know they are pregnant — has been in effect since September. Last month, the high court ruled that abortion providers can challenge the case, but kept the law in effect.

Abortion providers wanted their lawsuit sent back to a federal court in Austin that so far has been the only one to block the restrictions — albeit for only a few days.

Instead, the conservative-leaning 5th Circuit Court of Appeals sent the case instead to the state's Republican-controlled Supreme Court; it's not clear when the court will take up the case.

Texas abortion providers have said they are serving roughly a third of their typical number of patients since the law went into effect. Abortion clinics in neighboring states, meanwhile, say they continue to experience longer wait times for appointments because of a backlog of patients coming from Texas.

Chief Justice John Roberts joined the three liberals in December in a dissent that called for allowing a broader challenge to the law and a quick return to the lower federal court. Roberts did not note his position on Thursday. 

Clinics fear that their challenge to the law might not be resolved before the justices rule in a Mississippi case that could roll back abortion rights across the country. That decision, which could overrule the landmark Roe v. Wade case from 1973, is expected by late June.