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Trouble Down in Texas (and Elsewhere)
Feeley, Dianne
http://www.solidarity-us.org/node/4641Date Written: 2016-05-01 Publisher: Against the Current Year Published: 2016 Resource Type: Article Cx Number: CX21381 The U.S. Supreme Court, on March 2nd, 2016, heard arguments in the case of Whole Women's Health vs. Hellerstedt. The judges will be deciding the constitutionality of a 2013 Texas bill (HB2) that places restrictions on clinics where abortions are performed - most within the first eight weeks of pregnancy. Abstract: - Excerpt: Since the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision established that women have the legal right to control their reproductive lives, the right wing has found that invoking support for women's health and safety is more effective that emphasizing fetal "rights." HB2 requires that clinics must meet building specifications as if they were ambulatory surgical centers, and its doctors required to obtain admitting privileges at local hospitals. These unnecessary rules target only clinics where abortions are performed, not other medical clinics. The fact is that these clinics have been operating safely under licensing requirements and annual inspections. Texas' solicitor General Scott A. Keller maintained HB2 was necessary for women's health and cited the statistic that annually 210 women (out of 72,500) suffer complications that required hospitalization. That means a complication rate of approximately three-tenths of one percent. |