Supreme Court overturns landmark Texas pro-life law 5-3

The Supreme Court has reversed a landmark Texas pro-life law requiring abortionists to have admitting privileges and abortion facilities to meet more stringent health standards.

An eight-justice Supreme Court has reversed the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals on Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt (formerly Whole Woman’s Health v. Cole), 5-3.

The case was brought by the New York-based Center for Reproductive Rights on behalf of independent abortion facilities in Texas.

The case involves Texas’ H.B. 2, a pro-life law that, aside from restricting abortion to the first 20 weeks of pregnancy, required abortionists to have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of their offices and abortion facilities to meet the same health standards as other ambulatory surgical centers (ASCs).

Those regulations caused the number of abortion facilities to drop from 41 to eight according to Planned Parenthood, closing 13 abortion facilities in one day.

“Amazing Grace” vs. “Hail Satan!”

The law generated white-hot controversy before it ever passed, as hundreds of activists on both sides of the issue flooded the state Capitol in Austin during the sweltering summer of 2013. At one point, pro-life advocates sang “Amazing Grace” while pro-abortion activists drowned them out by chanting “Hail Satan!”

500 Texas women a year rushed to hospital from botched abortions

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote her own concurring opinion, writing that “complications from an abortion are both rare and rarely dangerous.”

At issue is whether the state’s pro-life regulations are intended to preserve women’s health and safety, or if they impose obligations that make it impossible for women to have an abortion.

An average of 10 Texas women are taken to the emergency room due to a botched abortion every week, or 500 a year, according to the Texas-based Justice Foundation. More than 200 are hospitalized annually.

The abortion lobby has called these regulations Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers (TRAP) laws, singling abortionists out unfairly in an effort to put them out of business.

Repercussions on the 2016 presidential race

The ruling is sure to impact this year’s presidential election. In her speech to Planned Parenthood on Friday, June 10, Hillary Clinton called the case “the biggest challenge to Roe v. Wade in a generation. It’s also a reminder of what’s at stake in the Supreme Court.” Donald Trump has promised for months to appoint only pro-life Supreme Court justices.

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