The Supreme Court Ruling: Whole Women’s Health vs. Hellerstedt

June 28, 2016: Emily Zender, Illinois Right to Life Executive Director

Yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a Texas law that would have protected women’s health.

The law was focused on two provisions. The first provision would have required abortion doctors to have admitting privileges to local hospitals. This means that if a woman had emergency complications during an abortion, the doctor could rush her to the hospital, ensuring a continuity of care.

The second provision of the law required abortion clinics to meet the same basic ambulatory surgical center standards, or ASC’s. Other surgeries done at ASC’s are usually knee, shoulder, or cataract surgery. Abortions would be held to these same standards because  abortion is an invasive surgery where instruments are inserted into a woman’s body and then the baby is either vacuumed out or dismembered and pulled out piece by piece.

This part of the law would have ensured basic safety standards, such as having hallways big enough for emergency personnel to bring a stretcher into the clinic should there be an emergency.

Where did the Texas General Assembly come up with these laws?

They were influenced by the Pennsylvania Grand Jury that investigated abortionist Kermit Gosnell and indicted him. Gosnell is now spending life in prison for killing babies born alive in abortions with scissors, maiming and killing women, and having disgusting health and sanitary violations in his abortion clinic.

The grand jury that investigated Gosnell minced no words when they stated,

“Abortion clinics should be explicitly regulated as ambulatory surgical facilities so that there are inspections annually and they are held to the same standards as other outpatient procedure centers.”

Yesterday, the Supreme Court struck down a Texas law that did exactly that.

I’ve read all 107 pages of this decision, the concurrents and two dissents. I’ve discussed it with our attorneys, and we’ve filed an amicus brief in this lawsuit. We believe this decision by the Supreme Court is gravely flawed, incoherent, and inconsistent.

The decision threw women under the bus. It asserted debated medical opinions as fact. It based parts of its decision on how much it would cost the abortion clinics to run their clinics rather than the new health and safety standards that would protect women’s health. 

Reminder: Planned Parenthood Federation of America alone has a $100 million endowment and has pledged to spend $11 million to elect Hillary Clinton. Former Planned Parenthood manager, Abby Johnson, has said she’s not surprised the abortion industry is more concerned about profit than about women’s health. 

But we’re not the only ones that find the ruling yesterday deeply flawed. While the media is peppered with objections, one must look no further than the three dissenting U.S. Supreme Court Justices. These Justices said in two dissents that the court had a habit of applying different rules to different constitutional rights, especially when it comes to abortion. They said the majority failed to apply the law in a neutral fashion. They called it “judicial fiat.” They said the majority had “radically re-written the law,” and that jurisprudence had “gone off the rails.” They accused the majority of “carpet-bombing the state law” and appointing themselves as the “ex-officio medical board,” as the court picked which medical opinions to listen to and which ones to completely dismiss. 

 

But how does this decision impact other pro-life laws across the country?

Well, admitting privileges across the country may no longer be allowed. In some areas, passing pro-life laws will be more difficult – not impossible. We do not believe abortion laws across the state will crumble. Some will be affected by this decision, but others will not be. This is merely a speed-bump on our highway to ending abortion. 

Remember: originally, when we tried to make partial-birth abortion illegal, it was struck down. We lost. But then, a few years later, we tried again, and partial-birth abortion is now illegal.

In courtrooms across the country, pro-life laws are being defended and challenged. This will continue. The 20 week ban in Texas will stand. The pro-abortion industry didn’t even challenge this law. We must now force a conversation about fetal viability. That is the one topic that the abortion industry doesn’t want to talk about.

So where do we go from here?

Well, I’ll leave you with just three points:

The first is education. Yesterday’s decision confirmed what we already knew: the battle for life will not be won in the Courts. We haven’t thought that it would be and we still don’t think that today. But we don’t need the courts to make abortion unthinkable. We need education. Yesterday’s decision shows just how vital education actually is. Education will end abortion. That area is easy for the pro-life movement because science is pro-life. We must recognize how important it is to be precise and accurate in our assertions, citations, and explanations of scientific, peer reviewed, credible facts, many of which you can find on Illinois Right to Life’s website

The second is exposed. The decision only makes it crystal clear that the abortion industry is and always has been about profit, not women’s health. I want you to stop and ponder this for just a moment: the abortion industry is currently celebrating after laws were struck down that would have protected women’s health. In a juicy bit of irony, the lead abortion clinic in this lawsuit has been cited countless times for disturbing health and safety violations. They had infection control problems, they failed to sterilize surgical tools and used rust stained suction machines, and had holes in the floor where rodents could get in. However, not once was this mentioned in the majority decision.

And the third is exceptional. The pro-life movement has made exceptional strides in the past decade. So while the abortion industry is celebrating today, I say let them celebrate. The pro-life movement is winning in every category. Public opinion on abortion is more pro-life than ever. Abortions across the country are declining, and in Illinois they’ve reached their lowest level since the legalization of abortion. We’re enjoying the largest pro-life generation in history, and just last fall the Center for Medical Progress released damning videos about the character and illegal activities of the abortion industry. Twelve states then defunded Planned Parenthood, and for the first time in history, Congress voted to defund Planned Parenthood federally. We are winning in every category.

So remember these three points: education, exposed, and exceptional.

I’m going to ask you to grab a piece of paper right now, or pull up the notes section on your phone after watching this video. I challenge you to write down three things right now that you are going to do to end abortion, because despite this loss yesterday, we are still closer than we have ever been before to ending abortion. So let’s get out there and go do it.