The restrictions - forcing doctors to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals and requiring clinics to meet standards for outpatient surgery centers - threaten to leave the state with only 10 clinics clustered in four population centers and along the Mexican border. By clearing up the ambiguity left by the 1992 ruling, which said states can impose restrictions that do not constitute an "undue burden," the justices could serve notice to lower courts across the country and hand a victory to one side or the other in a debate that has raged since their Roe v. Wade decision legalized abortion in 1973. "The politics of this has always been to push the court more and more to give deference to state legislators to restrict abortion rights," said Kathryn Kolbert, director of the Athena Center for Leadership Studies at Barnard College, who argued the 1992 case before the court on behalf of Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania.