Today’s Supreme Court Victory Also Spotlights the Importance of the Upcoming Election for Abortion R
Today’s Supreme Court Victory Also Spotlights the Importance of the Upcoming Election for Abortion Rights
The Supreme Court voted today in a 5-3 decision to strike down draconian abortion restrictions in a case about Texas House Bill 2 (HB2), declaring the state’s law and thusly others modeled after it across the nation to be unconstitutional. However, looking forward to the fall elections, abortion rights advocates cautioned against complacency, with the next President likely to shape the Court for a generation.
Senators Kirk Watson (D-Austin), Sylvia Garcia (D-Houston), Wendy Davis (D-Fort Worth), Leticia Van de Putte (D-San Antonio), Royce West (D-Dallas) and Carlos Uresti (D-San Antonio) at a 2013 rally against HB2. via Beth Cortez-Neavel and licensed under Creative Commons 3.0
Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt was centered on HB2, a TRAP (Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers) law passed in 2013 that required healthcare providers at each abortion clinic in Texas to have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles from the clinic and dictated that every health care facility offering abortion care must adhere to the same building standards required for ambulatory surgical centers (ASCs). HB2 had an enormous impact on women seeking abortions in Texas and forced over half of clinics in the state to close due to these extraneous and medically unnecessary requirements. “Today women across the nation have had their constitutional rights vindicated,” President and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights Nancy Northrup said in a press release. “The Supreme Court sent a loud and clear message that politicians cannot use deceptive means to shut down abortion clinics.” The Center filed the Supreme Court suit on behalf of Whole Woman’s Health, a Texas clinic.
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The Court’s decision today grants women across America hope and reassurance that they will be able to dictate their own futures and maintain control and sovereignty over their bodies—but it didn’t push the movement for abortion rights forward. Instead, it leaves in its wake the damage already done by TRAP laws around the country. TRAP laws have not only closed clinics in Texas but, as Ms. highlighted in our Spring 2016 issue, have also closed an estimated six abortion clinics in Ohio, two in Virginia, five in Pennsylvania, one in Tennessee and 12 in Arizona. Many of these clinics will not be able to re-open after losing their staffs and and building leases
“This is a victory for women’s health and lives in Texas and throughout the nation,” Eleanor Smeal, president of the Feminist Majority, said in a statement today. “But women’s rights advocates must continue to fight until women’s bodies are no longer stripped of their humanity and used as battling grounds for political gains in male-dominated state legislatures and Congress. We must not let down our guard. Until the Supreme Court slams shut the door that permits state legislatures and Congress to chip away at this fundamental right and decides, once and for all, that women have the right to make their own health decisions, including whether or not to have an abortion, we must continue to elevate the voices of the majority of women across the country who demand this right.”
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The Court’s decision today is also a reminder of the threat vacancies on the Supreme Court can pose to women’s lives. Given that the Supreme Court remains a battleground for abortion rights, the appointment of one or more new Justices—likely to be made by the next President—has become all the more important. “In the 2016 election, many candidates for state legislature, Congress, and the presidency, are pledged to ban access to abortion and to limit access to birth control,” Smeal added in her statement today. “The balance of the Supreme Court will be determined by the next President. The closeness of this decision calls attention to the high stakes for women in this next election and for the next quarter of a century. In fact, this election may determine for millions of women their reproductive fate and the course of their lives.” Today certainly marks a victory in the fight for reproductive rights—but this ruling is also a stark reminder of how precarious our progress remains.
http://msmagazine.com/blog/2016/06/27/todays-supreme-court-victory-also-spotlights-the-importance-of-the-upcoming-election-for-abortion-rights/