The Supreme Court issued its strongest defense of abortion rights in a quarter-century Monday, striking down Texas’ widely replicated rules that sharply reduced abortion clinics in the nation’s second-most-populous state.
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According to The Washington Post, 10 other states have laws similar to the one in Texas requiring abortion doctors to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals, including Missouri, North Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Alabama, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Wisconsin, although the laws in the latter six states are now being challenged.
Thanks to Tuesday’s 5-3 decision in Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt, the state can no longer require clinics that perform abortions to have hospital-grade standards and doctors with admitting privileges at nearby hospitals.
“We are thrilled the Court recognized that these laws do not enhance patient safety – rather, they punish women by blocking access to safe abortion”, Linton said.
Oklahoma U.S. Sens. Jim Inhofe and James Lankford, who are both Republicans, criticized the Supreme Court’s ruling, saying the law protected women’s health.
“States should be able to regulate abortion clinics the same as they do for any other medical facility that performs outpatient procedures”, Inhofe said.
“What’s so perverse about a law that pushes access to abortion out of reach by making it more expensive and logistically hard is that it is essentially custom-built to target poor women”, wrote Kathryn Holburn, a Texas resident, for Time’s Motto.
“We remain strongly committed to the protection of women’s health, including protecting a woman’s access to safe, affordable health care and her right to determine her own future, the President said”. “Today, the Court once again made special exceptions for abortion – one of the Court’s “favored rights”, as Justice Thomas said in his dissent – even if it means putting an undue burden on women’s safety”.
Justice Samuel Alito, in his dissent, wrote that the closures of abortion clinics – about half of the state’s 41, with more slated to close had the court ruled for Texas – could not be attributed for a certainty to House Bill 2, the law containing these restrictions. “This decision has a direct impact on the lives of women and their families”.
Clinton says the “fight isn’t over”, adding that the “next president has to protect women’s health”. Scalia has not yet been replaced, so only eight justices voted.
Texas is among 10 states with similar admitting-privileges requirements, according to the Center for Reproductive Rights. It also required clinics to meet hospital-like standards for outpatient surgery. The clinics won several favorable rulings in a federal district court in Texas.
The lawsuit has been temporarily on hold pending the outcome of the Texas case. But each time, the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with the state.
In the statement, Linton also said that it is time to pass state laws created to “protect a woman’s constitutional right to abortion, and repeal ones that block it”.
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A separate appeal is pending at the Supreme Court from Wisconsin, where federal judges have struck down that state’s admitting-privileges law.
