Washington ? Legal efforts to further restrict access to abortion will depend, in the short term, on whether Justice Anthony Kennedy is willing to go along.

The majority opinion he wrote upholding the federal Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act offers hope both for those who think the impact of Wednesday’s decision will be limited and for those who think it will be profound.

While Kennedy adopted some language favored by abortion opponents – “life of the unborn,” “abortion doctor,” “respect for life” – he also carefully distinguished the controversial procedure that was the focus of the Supreme Court case from a more common abortion method used after 12 weeks of pregnancy. The latter was unaffected by the ruling.

There was widespread agreement that the court’s ruling was important, upholding for the first time a ban on a controversial abortion procedure. The key difference from earlier rulings was in personnel, with Justice Samuel Alito replacing Justice Sandra Day O’Connor.

The majority – Chief Justice John Roberts, Justice Antonin Scalia, Justice Clarence Thomas, Alito and Kennedy – consists of five Catholics who were appointed by Republican presidents who believed Roe v. Wade was wrongly decided and should be overturned.

For the moment, though, Kennedy holds the balance of power. He has written decisions on both sides of the issue.

Particularly since O’Connor’s retirement last year, what he thinks probably is where the court will come out when asked to consider new restrictions.

Prominent abortion opponents also suggested the door was open to more aggressive action.

Troy Newman, president of the anti-abortion group Operation Rescue in Wichita, Kan., said: “This is a new day in the abortion battle. After 34 years of innocent children dying throughout the country we now have a new court, led by Chief Justice John Roberts, that has a plan to end abortion in America.”