WASHINGTON (AP) — Conflicting rulings about whether women should have to cross state lines to obtain an abortion could prompt the Supreme Court to take up its first case on the hot-button social issue since 2007.
The justices could say as soon as Friday whether they will hear cases from Texas and Mississippi that examine how states regulate abortion clinics. If they accept the cases, a decision on abortion, along with others on religious freedom and contraception under the Obama health care overhaul, affirmative action and perhaps even immigration, are likely to land in late June, roughly four months before the 2016 presidential election.
Two sets of judges on the same federal appeals court based in New Orleans came to different conclusions about regulation of abortion clinics in the two states.
