EL PASO, Texas — Abortion-rights lawyers are predicting “a showdown” at the U.S. Supreme Court after federal appellate judges allowed full implementation of a law that has closed more than 80 percent of abortion clinics in Texas.

As of Friday, abortion services for many Texas women required a round trip of more than 200 miles — or a border-crossing into Mexico or New Mexico.

Operators of some of the affected clinics and their lawyers from the Center for Reproductive Rights vowed to appeal Thursday’s decision by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans that allows Texas to fully enforce a sweeping abortion law approved by the Republican-controlled legislature last year. They depicted the law — and similar measures proposed in other states — as an unacceptable infringement of the Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling establishing a nationwide right to abortion.

“This case is ultimately going to end up with the Supreme Court,” said the reproductive rights center’s president, Nancy Northup. “It is going to be a showdown ... on whether the promise of Roe will have meaning in the United States.”

Two years ago, Texas had more than 40 abortion facilities. For now, no more than eight will be open, due to portions of the law.