Arguments in Supreme Court abortion case pitched to audience of one

FORT WORTH — Behind double-locked doors, beyond a waiting room named for Michelle Obama, past walls painted in signature purple hues called “Enigma” and “Intuitive,” the women who work at this abortion clinic await word from a man in Washington about whether a Texas law will force it to close.

Outside a suburban Starbucks miles away, an administrative assistant would like that same man, Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, to know that the law already has so reduced the number of providers in Texas that she took out a payday loan and hopped a plane to California for the abortion she had trouble scheduling in her home state.

And in the red granite Capitol in Austin, officials are also looking to Kennedy but want him to consider an alternative narrative about the law, which imposes new requirements on doctors and requires that even early abortions be performed in surgical centers.

These officials say the act grew out of concern for the health of women who choose the procedure and fits perfectly within the judicial compromise that Kennedy helped draft 24 years ago reaffirming a woman’s right to abortion but recognizing the state’s interest in protecting potential life.

The Supreme Court’s most important abortion case in decades, being heard on Wednesday, is pitched to an audience of one.

Justice Antonin Scalia’s unexpected death complicates the impact of the court’s eventual decision. But if the challengers are able to convince Kennedy that the Texas law goes too far, it would have national implications. States have passed more than 250 restrictions on abortion in the past five years.

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