Today, June 26, in a 5-3 decision, the Supreme Court overturned two key provisions of a Texas law designed to limit women’s access to abortion through medically unnecessary regulation of clinics. Even the partial implementation of the law had reduced the number of clinics in Texas from 40 to 20. This decision is a win for the women’s movement, and it could not have happened without the efforts and activism of countless groups and individuals who are standing up for reproductive rights.
The law in question, Texas HB2, required clinics to abide by the same standards as ambulatory surgery clinics, creating a hospital-like environment, and also required doctors at abortion clinics to have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital. This was the case even for clinics that only perform first trimester abortions, a very safe and simple procedure.
The majority in the court today rejected the argument that these regulations were medically necessary.
Justice Breyer wrote in the decision:
“Abortions taking place in an abortion facility are safe — indeed, safer than numerous procedures that take place outside hospitals and to which Texas does not apply its surgical-center requirements … Nationwide, childbirth is 14 times more likely than abortion to result in death, but Texas law allows a midwife to oversee childbirth in the patient’s own home.”
Instead the majority accepted the argument that the intent of the law was to reduce women’s ability to access their Constitutionally protected right to abortion.
Breyer wrote:
“We conclude that neither of these provisions offers medical benefits sufficient to justify the burdens upon access that each imposes. Each places a substantial obstacle in the path of women seeking a previability abortion, each constitutes an undue burden on abortion access, and each violates the federal Constitution.”
This decision will have a wide impact especially in the South and Midwest, where these “TRAP” laws (targeted regulation of abortion providers) have been adopted, drastically increasing the distance women in some areas must travel to be able to access abortion care.
This victory is not a gift from the Court. Rather, it reflects the deep-seated pro-choice sentiment that exists among the majority of people in the U.S., as well as the courageous activism and advocacy of many, from the doctors like Yashica Robinson who may be the only abortion provider in an entire state, to those who are attempting to reduce the shame associated with this medical procedure by encouraging women to “Shout your abortion!”
It is this kind of brave and in-your-face activism that won us the right to abortion in the first place, and it is only this kind of activism, on a mass scale, that can overturn all the restrictions on abortion care and make it truly accessible to all women who need it.
