Abortion Victory

http://www.solidarity-us.org/node/4758
Date Written:  2016-09-01
Publisher:  Against the Current
Year Published:  2016
Resource Type:  Article
Cx Number:  CX21470

On June 27, 2016 the U.S. Supreme Court, in Whole Women's Health vs. Hellerstedt, not only struck down key provisions of a 2013 Texas law restricting abortion, but also set a standard by which similar legislation can be measured.

Abstract: 
-

Excerpt:

The 5-to-3 ruling swept aside the requirement that clinics providing abortion must be ambulatory surgical centers, staffed by doctors with admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles.

The Texas legislature maintained that these restrictions were necessary for women's health and safety, but the Supreme Court wasn't buying it. The majority opinion concluded that "Each [provision] places a substantial obstacle in the path of women seeking a previability abortion, each constitutes an undue burden on abortion access, and each violates the federal Constitution."

The overwhelming majority of Texas abortions are first-trimester terminations in which the rate of complication is less than one quarter of one percent. The reality is that abortion is a safe procedure with a very low complication rate - approximately one death every two years.