SCOTUS Strikes Down Texas Abortion Restrictions

[CaliCat 3,957]

This is a bit of good news, amidst all the misogynistic rhetoric coming out of the WH recently.

 

http://www.medpagetoday.com/obgyn/pregnancy/58777?pop=0&ba=1&xid=tbla-md-obgyn

 

 

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday struck down abortion restrictions in Texas that required physicians performing abortions to have admitting privileges at a local hospital and that required abortion clinics to meet standards for ambulatory surgical centers, saying the requirements pose an “undue burden” and a “substantial obstacle” for women seeking abortions in the state.

“We conclude that neither of these provisions offers medical benefits sufficient to justify the burdens upon access that each imposes,” the court wrote in a 5-3 decision. “Each places a substantial obstacle in the path of women seeking a pre-viability abortion, each constitutes an undue burden on abortion access … and each violates the Federal Constitution.”

The court’s decision could affect other states as well — currently, 24 states have laws on the books requiring abortion clinics to meet surgical center standards, and 11 clinics have laws requiring physicians providing abortions to have hospital admitting privileges, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.

The case, known as Whole Woman’s Health et al. v. Hellerstedt, was brought in 2014 by a group of abortion providers who claimed that the two requirements — part of a bill known as H.B. 2 passed by the Texas legislature in 2013 — violated the 14th Amendment, which says that states cannot make laws that deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law.

 

Edited June 30, 2017 by CaliCat

[Amica Nostra 4,803]

Texas legislature already is fixin to fixit

 

https://www.google.com/amp/www.newsweek.com/abortion-texas-sb8-criminalize-driving-appointment-greg-abbott-618489%3famp=1

 

 

Texas bill that would ban the most common and safest second-trimester abortion procedure could also end up criminalizing anyone who helps a woman obtain one, reproductive rights advocates warn.

Texas Senate Bill 8, which according to the Dallas Observer is “the most stringentand most important anti-abortion bill” to emerge from the Texas legislature since 2013, aims to do a number of things. In addition to banning dilation and evacuation (D&E), the second-trimester procedure made illegal by several other states, it would ban fetal tissue donation and require that all tissue from an abortion be buried or cremated. And, by the way, that D&E ban wouldn’t include exceptions for women who became pregnant through rape or incest.