Supreme Court Refuses To Hear TX Abortion Case, Thousands Without Care

Today the Supreme Court of the United States refused to hear an emergency appeal regarding the reversal of a lower court ruling ?on the Texas HB 2 law. The courts refusal to hear the case has a deep and profound impact on abortion care access for the women of Texas.

The lower court had ruled that the admitting privileges portion was unconstitutional which would have allowed the 13 clinics that are now closed to remain open. The 5th Circuit court of Appeals based in New Orleans and known as the most conservative court in America reversed ?the??lower court decision stating admitting privileges might indeed “increase the cost of accessing an abortion provider and decrease the number of physicians available to perform abortions.”

The?5-4 ruling delivered today fell along ideological lines with Justice Scalia (yes Scalia Mr. I “fit right in” in Texas), Justice Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr.?being represented in the majority opinion and Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Kennedy (epic side eye to him)?voting?with them but not signing onto the opinion. In the majority opinion Justice Scalia ?stated:

Reasonable minds can perhaps disagree about whether the court of appeals should have granted a stay in this case, but there is no doubt that the applicants have not carried their heavy burden of showing that doing so was a clear violation of accepted legal standards ? which do not include a special ?status quo? standard for laws affecting abortion.

Justice??Breyer wrote the dissenting opinion, in which he stated:

Although the injunction will ultimately be reinstated if the law is indeed invalid, the harms to the individual women whose rights it restricts while it remains in effect will be permanent.The underlying legal question ? whether the new Texas statute is constitutional ? is a difficult question. It is a question, I believe, that at least four members of this court will wish to consider irrespective of the 5th Circuit’s ultimate decision.?

As long as the current composition of the court remains, the rights of women in this county will be uncertain. Justice Kennedy, who is almost always the swing vote, is no friend to a woman’s right to chose. In?Gonzales v. Carhart?, the case used to uphold so called “partial birth” abortion bans, the?majority opinion was penned by Justice Kennedy. In it he stated:

It is self-evident that a mother who comes to regret her choice to abort must struggle with grief more anguished and sorrow more profound, when she learns, only after the event, what she once did not know: that she allowed a doctor to pierce the skull and vacuum the fast developing brain of her unborn child, a child assuming the human form.

He thinks certain kinds of abortion are gross and women need protection from them?because hey we aren’t smart enough to really know what abortion is.?As long as he is the vote we are counting on to save women’s rights on the highest court we are certainly in danger. Let us hope he retires soon.

Edited/Published by: SB

Laurie Bertram Roberts is the president of Mississippi National Organization for Women, a feminist activist, full spectrum doula and writer in Jackson, MS. Her family suspected she was trouble when at age 8 she preferred reading weekly news magazines over girly magazines. Her early fascination with liberal ideals, women's rights, was not quite welcome in her conservative fundamentalist Christian home. She is incredibly passionate about reproductive justice and fighting all forms of oppression. When not speaking truth to power she is likely hanging out with her children watching sci fi or doing other nerd like things.