A federal court has ruled an Alabama law requiring abortion providers to obtain admitting privileges at a nearby hospital is unconstitutional. The law would have closed three of five abortion clinics in the state. While abortion opponents claim such requirements make patients safer, U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson ruled the law would actually undermine patient care and place an undue burden on access. The ruling comes just days after an appeals court struck down a similar law in Mississippi which threatened to close the state’s lone abortion clinic.