Today, the Supreme Court refused to let Texas enforce an abortion law so restrictive, it would have forced 10 clinics to close across the state, the Associated Press reports.

The law, H.B. 2, requires all abortion providers have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals and holds clinics to the same standards as ambulatory surgical centers. These regulations, which supporters of the bill claim are for the safety of patients, are seen as unnecessarily stringent by many others—including the American Medical Association and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, which both submitted an amicus brief opposing the law.

When other parts of H.B. 2 went into effect in 2013, the law shuttered half of Texas's abortion clinics. If the rest of the law goes into effect, the numbers would drop even further, leaving open clinics clustered in areas like Austin, Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio, the New York Times reports, making it much harder for poor and rural women to get abortions, since they have to travel further to find a clinic.

H.B. 2 was largely given an okay by a federal appeals court earlier in June, and that court refused to put the new regulations on hold until the Supreme Court had a chance to review an appeal. So the clinics asked for an emergency appeal, and in today's 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court granted it. The ruling will continue until the court decides to hear the clinics' appeal of the decision, which wouldn't take place until the fall, meaning these Texas abortion clinics can stay open...for now.

According to the Associated Press, it's likely that the justices will review the case this fall, and it would be one of the biggest abortion cases to hit the court in 25 years. "The justices have preserved Texas women's few remaining options for safe and legal abortion care for the moment. Now it's time to put a stop to these clinic shutdown laws once and for all," Nancy Northup, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights, said in a statement.

From: ELLE US