Abortion case goes to Supreme Court: 5 things to know

The death on February 13 of Justice Antonin Scalia changed the calculus on both sides somewhat.

Whole Woman’s Health, the clinic suing the state, argues that the law “drastically reduce[s] the number and geographic distribution of abortion facilities in Texas”, whittling down the number of clinics to nine (from more than 40) and leaving vast swathes of the state (in the Rio Grande Valley in the south and the El Paso area in the west) without a single facility. Then in 2013, Texas stopped accepting federal Medicaid funds for even wellness exams and established a state-funded Women’s Health Program that could legally withhold funds from any clinic affiliated with an abortion provider. HB2 would so dramatically reduce the number of clinics operating in Texas, and make the process so long and cumbersome, that those women would be unable to access abortion care at all. The gruesome reality is that many abortions are performed by physicians who lack nearby hospital admitting privileges, and many abortions are performed in degrading clinics whose facilities are below the minimal standards of a modern surgery center. The second restriction imposes prohibitively expensive and medically unnecessary surgical center standards on abortion providers – even clinics that perform only nonsurgical medication abortions and the safest early-stage procedure.

Along with 1,300 other clergy, I signed an amicus brief urging the Supreme Court to strike down this law. Because the real motive is to incrementally dismantle abortion rights, to restrict access to abortions to the point where they’re only for the wealthy or well-connected. 2 is to ban abortion completely. This ruling is so very important. The Supreme Court’s last major abortion ruling was in 2007 when it upheld a federal law banning a late-term abortion procedure. The fund specifically assists any woman who does not have transportation or lives, at least, two hours away from a clinic.

A U.S. Capitol Police officer warns a group of pro-abortion rights demonstrators to move as they attempt to block the March for Life 2016, in front of the U.S. Supreme Court, on January 22, 2016. Wendy Davis filibustered the bill in the state’s legislature, standing on her feet for 11 hours in pink sneakers that have since become a symbol of the fight for abortion rights. Among other things, HB2 requires abortion clinics to meet the same standards as ambulatory surgical centres. She had her abortion when she was a 21-year-old junior at Harvard.

In the 1992 seminal abortion rights case Planned Parenthood v. Casey, SCOTUS reaffirmed a woman’s right to abortion as granted in Roe while also allowing states wider latitude in restricting the procedure.

The notoriously conservative 5th Circuit Court of Appeals (which has continually upheld HB 2) gave carte blanche to the GOP-dominated Lege but other circuit courts have diverged, arguing states must justify their abortion restrictions, especially in light of the opposition from the medical community – the high court justices will need to figure out if they must compel the state to defend its motives. It also is possible that conservative Justice Anthony Kennedy, who has voted for the basic right to abortion but endorsed many restrictions, would join the court’s four liberals to strike down the Texas law.

Nan Kirkpatrick, executive director of Texas Equal Access Fund, which provides small grants to help low-income women afford abortions, says many can not pay for gas, hotel rooms and child care or take time off from work to travel hundreds of miles.

Planned Parenthood staff witnessed firsthand what happened when Texas’s law was implemented in October, before being temporarily enjoined by the high court.

According to the Center for Reproductive Rights, only one clinic in Louisiana is expected to be able to continue operations, while two have already closed, and one is “hanging on by a thread”, the Associated Press reports.

The Philadelphia grand jury that indicted Gosnell concluded: “If oversight agencies expect to prevent future Dr. Gosnells, they must find the fortitude to enact and enforce the necessary regulations”.

The court will have to decide whether these restrictions constitute an “undue burden” on a woman’s right to get an abortion. This Texas case is the first big test of that standard.

Some call Texas a case study in how to close abotion clinics through strict regulation. The Court will not consider that part of the law because the abortion industry, despite its claims about harm to women and Wendy Davis’s rhetoric, has chosen not to challenge it. It’s not an oversight. Instead, women are subject to a slew of restrictive rules, mandatory wait times and various other roadblocks, just so they can schedule a damn appointment.

A split decision in the Texas case would have no effect on laws that have been blocked in Alabama and Oklahoma, among other states.