U.S. Supreme Court Sidesteps Planned Parenthood Disclosure Fight

In 2013, when several provisions of Texas’ onerous anti-abortion law took effect, women with unwanted pregnancies were left startled and helpless as dozens of clinics closed literally overnight. Indeed, another affiliate (after parroting the exact quote above) boasts of its “rigorous medical standards and guidelines” and “rigorous standards and training for staff as well as emergency plans in place, because women’s safety is our first priority”. Overall, abortions in the state declined by 13 percent since the law was enacted. “Emergency room physicians, hospital-based physicians, and on-call specialists already provide prompt and effective treatment to all patients with urgent medical needs, including women with abortion-related complications”, it added. “When we had to cancel her appointment and send her away, she told us that she could not travel to San Antonio to get an in-clinic abortion and that she had no other option than to see what was available off the grid in her local community, or over the border”. When she realized she was pregnant with a fourth child she could not afford to support, she made a decision to end her pregnancy.

Officials in Texas said that the contested provisions were needed to protect women’s health.

The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in March.

The decision will likely arrive early in the summer, along with rulings on other major issues such as immigration, affirmative action, and public unions, just as the presidential election enters its heated final four months.

Gonidakis said he’s confident the U.S. Supreme Court will respect states’ rights to regulate their residents’ health and safety.

The findings could be significant evidence in a Supreme Court case challenging Texas’ abortion restrictions. The result is that USA abortion policy has become extreme among developed nations in allowing elective, late-term abortions and a lucrative, yet largely unaccountable, abortion industry daily endangers the lives and health of women.

While this case does not directly present the justices with the opportunity to overrule Roe v. Wade, Arkansas recently filed a petition asking the Court to overrule a key part of the legal standard created in Roe and refined in Casey.

Still, laws upheld by courts in the “umpiring business” have human consequences.

Two other abortion clinics in the state and two waste disposal companies also face fines for failing to dispose of the remains of aborted babies in a manner required by law.

The study showed that poor women bear the brunt of the law. A clinic on Fourth Avenue in downtown Seattle discreetly terminated pregnancies of affluent women and their offspring. The Guttmacher Institute, an organization supporting a women’s right to abortion but whose data is widely sourced on the issue, notes that states passed 231 new restrictions on abortion clinics between 2010 and 2014 (of varying degrees of stringency, including hospital-admitting privileges, hospital-grade facilities, and waiting periods). The group talks to state legislators, testifies in hearings and joins in defending laws in court.

Before the law passed, Texas had around 40 abortion clinics in the state but the number is now down to 18, and a few clinics argue the number can drop to as low as 9 or 10 in the entire state. “There’s no way the court can avoid this now”, says South Texas College of Law professor Gerald Treece. That law says medical directors must have admitting privileges at hospitals or have transfer agreements with hospitals “within reasonable proximity” of the clinics.