Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel has filed a brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in support of a Texas law that requires doctors that work at abortion clinics to have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of the clinic.
In November, the federal appeals court in Chicago struck down a Wisconsin law that imposes the same admitting privileges requirements on abortion doctors. The court ruled the restrictions would not benefit women’s health and were designed specifically to restrict access to abortion, and were therefore unconstitutional.
In the brief submitted on Friday, Schimel argued the court shouldn’t consider a legislature’s motive in passing a law restricting abortion but only whether the restriction is otherwise lawful.
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Schimel said he plans to use a similar argument when he appeals the challenge to Wisconsin’s law in the coming weeks.
The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in the challenge to the Texas law in the first week of March. A decision is expected in June.
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