WASHINGTON- The Supreme Court challenge to a Texas law that has dramatically reduced the number of abortion clinics in the state is the justices' most significant case on the hot-button issue in nearly a quarter-century.

One of this election-year term's biggest cases is being argued Wednesday before a court that's been altered by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia. He was perhaps the most vociferous abortion opponent among the nine justices.

The Texas law has been replicated across the South and elsewhere - part of a wave of state restrictions on abortion in the past five years.

States mainly led by Republicans have tried to limit when in a pregnancy abortions may be performed, restrict abortion-inducing drugs that take the place of surgery and increase standards for clinics and their doctors.