On Thursday, just a couple of days before Saturday's 49th anniversary of the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court Roe v. Wade decision that ruled abortion fell within a right to privacy under the Fourteenth Amendment, the justices gave pro-life advocates a bit of welcome news.
In a 6-3 vote, the nation's highest court rejected an attempt to block Texas' strict ban on abortion after six weeks.
The law has been effect for four months now and this is the third time the court's conservative majority has rejected attempts by pro-choice activists to halt enforcement pending a final ruling expected in June in a Mississippi case when the court could overturn Roe v. Wade.
This time the Thursday ruling left the ban with the 5th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, which has shown a willingness to wait on what the Supreme Court decides, rather than return it to a federal district judge who is seen as more inclined to block implementation.
Needless to say, the court's three liberal justices were not pleased.
In dissent, Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor called the ruling a disaster for abortion access in Texas and said it violates nearly 50 years of precedent.
Which is, of course, exactly the point of the ban and why it was passed by the Legislature and signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbott. What Sotomayor sees as a disaster is widely viewed as a blessing by many in the Lone Star State.
No doubt the pro-choice crowd will come at the law again. And they will likely fail again. But the real test will come in June when the court hands down it's ruling in the Mississippi case. Roe v. Wade may remain intact. Or regulation of legal abortion could return to the states, where it belongs. We will have to wait and see.