Wrapping up the final week of the term, a divided Supreme Court threw out a Texas law requiring abortion providers to have admitting privileges at local hospitals with a mandate that clinics must also meet the same strict standards as ambulatory surgical centers. The court ruled 5-3, with conservative Justices Roberts, Thomas and Alito dissenting. Critics of the law had argued that it would have disproportionately impacted low income women who must travel greater distances to find a clinic that meets the new tougher standards. According to the petitioners, the new law violated the undue burden standard established in the 1992 case Planned Parenthood v. Casey. Texas lawmakers defended the law, saying it is meant to protect women’s health.
It’s not exactly a stretch for a reasonably objective observer (if that’s even possible in the abortion contretemps) to look at Texas’s abortion law and recognize it for what it is: a not-so-very-thinly-veiled attempt to ban abortion. No, the language doesn’t explicitly indicate intent to abrogate the right guaranteed by Roe v. Wade, but it was designed to make the process and reality of getting an abortion so thoroughly onerous it would cause women to give up.
Republicans responsible for the law will hold forth at some considerable length about how their ONLY thought was “to protect the health of Texas women,” but the dishonesty behind that contention is almost palpable. They’re concerned about the health of women in the same way Jim Jones was concerned about the safety of the KoolAid served in Jonestown. There’s simply no rational basis for believing the law was in any shape, manner, or form about protecting women’s health. Even Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, not normally known as a shining beacon of honesty or integrity, admitted the law was about restricting abortion.
Finally, the Supreme Court has issued a decision supportive of the rights guaranteed to women 43 years ago by Roe v. Wade. The decision applies to a Texas law specifically, but its impact will be felt across every red state determined to pass laws intended to progressively curtail the right of a woman to control her own body.
Conservatives, as you might imagine, are NOT happy…probably because their self-ascribed ownership of a woman’s lady parts has come under some well-deserved scrutiny. Turns out precedent actually means something in American jurisprudence. Who knew??
Restrictive abortion laws have always been a sham aimed at limiting women's rights under the guise of protecting them. #StopTheSham
— Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) June 27, 2016
SCOTUS's decision is a victory for women in Texas and across America. Safe abortion should be a right—not just on paper, but in reality. -H
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) June 27, 2016
For the American Taliban, those Far Right culture warriors who believe that ONLY Conservative White males should be allowed to make decisions regarding women’s health and reproductive functions, this decision represents a significant (and well-deserved) setback. Convinced they could obliterate Roe v. Wade by nibbling at the margins until the entire edifice collapsed, this decision represents a moral line in the sand in defense of a woman’s right to choose.
Not that this one decision will stop the anti-choice zealots determined to destroy a woman’s right to control her own body. They’ll do what they’ve always done- craft new, different, and ever more creative and disingenuous ways to subjugate the right guaranteed by Roe v. Wade. Zealots are never truly defeated; such is the nature of zealotry. The battle will continue, and those of us who believe women are the ones best equipped to make decisions regarding their own bodies will continue to advocate for a woman’s right to a safe and legal abortion- you know, what the Supreme Court laid out in Roe v. Wade.
No one should ever have the right to force another to adhere to their narrow moral/ideological/theological framework, yet this is exactly the expectation of the anti-choice zealots behind Texas’ law. This setback won’t make them realize they don’t have the right to force others to live by their rules, of course; they’ll continue to believe their God should be our government and that their narrow morality by rights should carry the force of law. Ideologues and demagogues aren’t deterred by mere laws. They believe themselves (and their unquestioned moral superiority) best equipped to determine how all Americans must live, and they won’t stop until victory (or whatever it is they define thusly) is achieved.
It’s God’s will, don’tchaknow?
Those of us who believe the world doesn’t belong to Conservative White heterosexual Christian males will continue to resist efforts to oppress women and deny them their legal rights. We’ll continue working to create a world in which abortion is, in the Hillary Clinton’s words, “safe, legal, and rare.” And we’ll continue working to ensure that the separation of Church and State continues to be the defining feature of American governance- YOUR God doesn’t get to be OUR government.
The battle continues….
