Supreme Court questions controversial Texas abortion law

By MARK SHERMAN and JESSICA GRESKO
Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — A majority of the Supreme Court are signaling that they would allow abortion providers to pursue a court challenge to a Texas law that has virtually ended abortion in the nation’s second-largest state after six weeks of pregnancy. But it was unclear Monday how quickly the court would rule and whether it would issue an order blocking the law that has been in effect for two months, or require providers to ask a lower court to put the law on hold. Two conservative justices, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett, voted in September to allow the law to take effect, but they raised questions Monday about its novel structure. The law was written to make it difficult to mount legal challenges and subjects clinics, doctors and any others who facilitate abortions to large financial penalties.