Little could she have imagined her documentary film Trapped would open in major cities this week, the same week the US Supreme Court hears arguments on those laws – the first time the nation’s highest court has tackled the controversial issue of abortion in almost a decade. It also is possible that conservative Justice Anthony Kennedy, who has voted for the basic right to abortion but endorsed many restrictions, would join the court’s four liberals to strike down the Texas law.
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States mainly led by Republicans have tried to limit when in a pregnancy abortions may be performed, restricted abortion-inducing drugs that take the place of surgery and increased standards for clinics and the doctors who work in them. Including, I’d add, by the Supreme Court itself.
A 117-page document outlines the building standards and operations for so-called ambulatory surgical centers in Texas. As clinics close all over Texas, women often live hours away from the nearest clinic, requiring burdensome travel for each one of these appointments. And as Texas has already shown, the women who suffer the most because of these regulations are poor, young and from rural areas.
This is why more than half of Texas’ abortion clinics have closed.
The case is Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt out of Texas.
Wesolowski said abortion is a “safe and legal” medical procedure and shouldn’t be subject to stricter regulations.
One of the most successful tactics of the pro-life movement has been to pass state laws requiring that abortion clinics measure up to the standards required of hospitals and other surgical centers. “They fail to enhance the quality or safety of abortion-related medical care and, in fact, impede women’s access to such care by imposing unjustified and medically unnecessary burdens on abortion providers”. A clinic in Shreveport would have to stop providing abortions soon, the group said.
Abortion providers have challenged a Republican-backed law passed in Texas in 2013. He is serving a life sentence after his conviction for killing three babies born alive and for the overdose death of a woman who was a clinic patient.
Another national anti-abortion group, Americans United for Life, began using the 2005 Missouri law as model legislation for state activists targeting abortion clinics. After the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit upheld H.B.
A ruling in the case is due by the end of June. It’s got special custodial closets, too, but that doesn’t make it appreciably safer than any other clinic providing abortion, Dr. Hal Lawrence, the CEO of the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists says.
With Justice Scalia’s death, conventional wisdom is that the court would tie 4-4, which would uphold the appeals court endorsement of the Texas law.
The vacancy on the nine-seat bench leaves the court evenly split 4-4 between conservatives and liberals. In the wake of a series of highly edited videos, Florida’s law also takes aim at Planned Parenthood. They want the justices to block the ruling and let them stay open. The other portion of the law being challenged, requiring abortion doctors to have “admitting privileges” at a local hospital, has gone into effect.
The briefs tell the stories of women who say their abortions allowed them to control their bodies, plan for the future, and welcome children into their lives when their careers were established and their personal lives were on solid ground.
In the unlikely event of serious complications, the patient will be treated at the nearest hospital, regardless of whether the doctor who performed the abortion has admitting privileges there. She is cautiously optimistic that Kennedy will vote against the Texas law, but she says it is not clear which way he will go. It won’t mean fewer fatally flawed pregnancies.
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“Safe and legal” was the catchphrase used by the feminists to pretend that legalizing abortion was necessary for the health and safety of women. According to the Court, regulations that “serve no goal other than to make abortions more difficult” are unconstitutional. “They are nearly traumatized by the experience they’ve had to go through”, said Prine.
