Justices in a 5-3 decision Monday overturned a Texas law requiring admitting privileges and requiring clinics to meet the same building standards as ambulatory surgical centers. Ideally, it will discourage other states from proposing similar laws.
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“We really have a daunting task to determine whether and how we can reopen our health centers”, said Whole Woman’s Health founder Amy Hagstrom Miller, whose chain of abortion clinics in Texas includes the state’s only provider on the southern border with Mexico.
“The conscious decision to end human life should never be cause for celebration in a civilized society”.
Kennedy, the court’s pivotal justice on abortion rights, assigned the opinion to Justice Stephen Breyer. The dissenting justices were John Roberts and Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas.
The cases are Currier v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, 14-997, and Schimel v. Planned Parenthood, 15-1200.
When then-Gov. Rick Perry signed the law in 2013, there were about 40 clinics throughout the state. As Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg cautioned in her concurrence, “when a State severely limits access to safe and legal procedures, women in desperate circumstances may resort to unlicensed rogue practitioners, faute de mieux, at great risk to their health and safety”.
Breyer wrote that each of the Texas restrictions “provides few if any health benefits for women, poses a substantial obstacle to women seeking abortions and constitutes an “undue burden” on their constitutional right to do so”.
“On the contrary, determined to strike down two provisions of a new Texas abortion statute in all of their applications, the Court simply disregards basic rules that apply in all other cases”.
“This decision is certainly historic”, said Laura Goodhue, executive director of the Florida Alliance of Planned Parenthood Affiliates.
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton called the outcome “a victory for women in Texas and across America”. “Women’s opportunities are expanded and our nation is stronger when all of our citizens have accessible, affordable health care”.
The waiting before the doors of the Supreme Court turned into a party on Monday for abortion-rights advocates who sang Madonna’s “Like a virgin” and Queen’s “We are the champions”.
“I’m disappointed in the court’s decision. As a Member of Congress, I have and will continue to fight for the rights of the unborn”. The brief was one of only a handful of amici curiae briefs cited in the decision out of a total of 41 such briefs filed on behalf of petitioners.
With its ruling on Monday, the court gave its most stout endorsement of abortion rights since 1992.
The rules meant that hundreds of thousands of Texas women were or would be forced to seek abortion services far from their homes and faced a weeks-long wait while clinics struggle with strict requirements and costly upgrades. Many clinics had faced multimillion-dollar renovations to comply with the law, such as upgrades to air ventilation systems and hallways wide enough to accommodate hospital beds.
Outside the court, pro-choice activists breathed a collective sigh of relief.
In a statement Monday, the Republican said the ruling “erodes states’ lawmaking authority to safeguard the health and safety of women”.
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The tossed-out restrictions, she said, had been aimed at protecting women’s health.
