What the Historic Abortion Decision Means for American Women
It’s almost impossible to overstate how terrible the past 12 months have been for abortion providers: They’ve seen maliciously edited videos intended to deceive people into thinking abortion clinics sell baby parts; a huge spike in harassment and threats directed at providers and medical researchers; the longest sustained terrorist shoot-out in American history, resulting in three people being killed and nine injured at a Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood; seemingly endless congressional investigations that have produced invasive subpoenas into providers and their allies’ practices; state investigations into abortion funding and fetal-tissue disposal; scores of new anti-abortion legislation; and more.
It’s been a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad year — until today. For the first time in what seems like eons, abortion providers and the patients they serve were victorious. And it was a huge victory indeed.
Today, the Supreme Court decided 5-3 that two provisions of a monster Texas law that would have ultimately reduced the number of abortion clinics in the state — the second largest both geographically and in terms of population — from over 40 to just eight or nine. The decision was written by Justice Stephen Breyer (joined by Justices Anthony Kennedy, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan), and it was a resounding rejection of state legislatures meddling in women‘s health without any medical reason for doing so.
Three years ago, Texas rushed through an extreme sham of an abortion law. Among other provisions, the law required that all doctors working at abortion clinics obtain admitting privileges at a nearby hospital and that all clinics meet the heightened facility standards of an ambulatory surgical center, or miniature hospital. These laws may sound sensible on their face — after all, who doesn’t want to promote safety? But as countless medical organizations stated and the Court wrote today, neither provision has anything whatsoever to do with safety. Rather, they are intended to close down abortion clinics and stop women from having abortions.
Today’s decision recognized these laws as nothing more than fronts to shut down clinics and curtail women’s constitutional rights. Texas had urged the Supreme Court to defer to the state legislators’ “expertise,” but the Court did nothing of the sort. Instead, the Court said it is appropriate for federal courts to determine the facts when constitutional rights are at issue, and the facts here are clear: There was no scientific basis for these laws. Rather, abortion was already one of the safest medical procedures there is long before Texas’ new restrictions. As Justice Breyer noted, abortion is far safer than child birth, colonoscopies and liposuction, and Texas had no evidence whatsoever that there was a single woman anywhere in the country who would have been helped had its laws been fully in effect.