On June 27, 2016 the United States Supreme Court struck down a Texas law that severely limited women’s access to reproductive healthcare in the state of Texas.
Texas House Bill 2, also known as H.B. 2, was passed in 2013 and upheld in a federal appeals court in 2015. The controversial law required, among other things, that abortion doctors have admitting privileges at local hospitals, and it also mandated that abortion clinics upgrade their facilities to meet strict standards normally reserved for hospitals. Many, including the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Family Physicians, opposed these changes as harmful to women’s health and safety. The procedures taking place in the clinic are often simple, quick and don’t require the use of general anesthesia, making the new regulations unnecessarily restrictive.
In the years since the law’s passing, its stringent requirements have had a drastic impact on the state’s existing abortion clinics, forcing 23 of 42 existing clinics to shut their doors. And it’s not just the women seeking abortion services that are affected. As NPR reported, when the Planned Parenthood in Midland, Texas, closed, “8,000 well-woman appointments a year vanished” with it. Had the Supreme Court upheld H.B. 2, only 10 abortion clinics in a state with 5.4 million women of reproductive age would have been allowed to stay open. The consequences of additional closures of women’s healthcare facilities would have been devastating to women in the state.
The 5-3 ruling from the country’s highest court found that the law’s measures placed an undue burden on a woman’s constitutional right to seek an abortion. “It is beyond rational belief that H.B. 2 could genuinely protect the health of women, and certain that the law ‘would simply make it more difficult for them to obtain abortions,’” Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote. “When a State severely limits access to safe and legal procedures, women in desperate circumstances may resort to unlicensed rogue practitioners, faute de mieux (for want of a better alternative), at great risk to their health and safety.”
The Supreme Court’s decision is a big win for advocates of women’s healthcare and reproductive rights. Former Texas State Senator Wendy Davis told CNN, “We were absolutely overjoyed because the Court recognized that this law was a sham, that the argument that this was somehow going to protect women’s health was absolutely disingenuous.”
Davis has been a leading supporter of women’s rights, making history in 2013 when she engaged in an 11-hour filibuster of Senate Bill 5 (SB 5), which famously delayed its passing in that legislative session. Though it was passed at a later date, Davis and other advocates continued to fight the bill.
Amber Mostyn, a Houston-based lawyer and Davis supporter, is one of the women who has made it her mission to advocate for women’s access to inexpensive healthcare and reproductive rights. The issue is a personal one for her. As detailed in the New Republic, Mostyn’s mother left high school when she became pregnant with Amber. “She really just raised me knowing that she loved me more than anything in the world, but to keep me was her decision, and it would be wrong to force that on anyone else,” Mostyn explained.
The support and hard work from Davis, Mostyn and other advocates has paid off. The court’s decision will affect similar laws in 12 other states, meaning that the ruling is a victory for not only women in Texas, but also across America.