While the pro-abortion rights groups who brought the challenge are pleased the high court has taken it up, so are pro-life advocates.
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On Friday, the Supreme Court agreed to review a challenge to HB2, which threatens to close more than 75% of abortion clinics in the state and deny millions of women access to safe, legal abortion.
The justices have up until June to make a final decision.
Medical and legal questions will be tackled by the U.S. Supreme Court in the latest case. But Gosnell’s clinic – though one of the more horrific – is not an outlier in the abortion industry.
After the announcement, Steven Aden, senior counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom, said the Texas law provides “common-sense protections that ensure the maximum amount of safety for women”. However, because officials in New Hampshire voted not to give any money to Planned Parenthood, the United Stated Department of Health and Human Services gave the family planning grant directly to Planned Parenthood of Northern New England, which provides several types of vital health services to women in addition to safe abortions. A provision in HB2 required abortion providers to have admitting privileges with a hospital cut that number in half. With a majority of centers shuttered and open centers now clustered only in major cities, women in rural areas in particular may have to drive more than 300 miles round-trip to get an abortion, or risk their health at unsafe, illegal, and unregulated providers-the opposite of what the Texas law claims to want for the female citizens of its state.
The range of estimates on the number of women of reproductive age in Texas who have attempted self-induced abortion results from tools used to best elicit responses on subjects like abortion where women have been made to feel shame or stigma, and may therefore be less likely to self-report. Aden tells OneNewsNow that decision was handed down in spite of rare dissents from Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas. Like in Texas, Ohio’s GOP-dominated legislature has passed multiple restrictions on abortions – tighter rules that have forced clinics to close.
Both deal with rising standards for hospitals and doctors practicing abortions in Texas. One part requires doctors that perform abortions to have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital, and the other calls for every clinic to meet the standards of hospital facilities, including those concerning equipment, staffing, and building codes. “The court said undue burdens included “unnecessary health regulations that have the objective or effect of presenting a substantial obstacle to a woman seeking an abortion”. “Abortionists should not be exempt from medical requirements that everyone else is required to follow”.
“People in the media refer to this bill as the defund Planned Parenthood bill, but there is no mention of any particular abortion provider in this legislation”, Conduit said.
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Tierney added, “Americans deserve to know if their tax money is being funneled to groups that are misusing it. We had hoped the U.S. Supreme Court would consider this case, which would have addressed whether the government can continue to veil its support for Planned Parenthood”.
