Breaking: SCOTUS Strikes Down Texas Abortion Laws

 

shutterstock_389589046Via NBC:

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday struck down one of the nation’s toughest restrictions on abortion, a Texas law that women’s groups said would have forced more than three-quarters of the state’s clinics to shut down. Passed in 2013, the law said clinics providing abortion services must meet the same building standards as ambulatory surgical centers. And it required doctors performing abortions to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals.

Since the law was passed, the number of clinics providing abortion services in Texas dropped to 19 from 42. Opponents said that number would fall to ten if the Supreme Court upheld the law.

The Center for Reproductive Rights called the law “an absolute sham,” arguing that abortion patients rarely require hospitalization and that many patients simply take two pills.

[…]

The court’s decision will affect similar laws in twelve other states, some now on hold because of court challenges. The restrictions in Texas represented a new front in efforts to restrict abortion by focusing on protecting the health and safety of the mother rather than the life of the fetus.

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  1. Kate Braestrup Member
    Kate Braestrup
    @GrannyDude

    Mate De:I feel I need to clear some things up, 1st trimester abortions are pretty safe, the baby is quite small and is easily sucked out of the mothers womb, the majority of abortions in this country are done in the first trimester. FYI, I don’t think this is right and abortion does have psychological ramifications for a lot of women going forward, but not all.

    Second trimester are still relatively safe but as the baby is bigger th procedure is more intensive. Instead of with the first trimester where they just suck the baby out in one go usually, the second trimester usually uses a D&E procedure where they tear the baby apart in the womb and count the body parts to determine that the procedure is finished. (Quite graphic but I don’t want to sugar coat it)

    third trimester abortions are usually much riskier. This video will give the details to why

    yup.

    • #91
  2. Mark Coolidge
    Mark
    @GumbyMark

    Kate Braestrup:

    Mate De:I feel I need to clear some things up, 1st trimester abortions are pretty safe, the baby is quite small and is easily sucked out of the mothers womb, the majority of abortions in this country are done in the first trimester. FYI, I don’t think this is right and abortion does have psychological ramifications for a lot of women going forward, but not all.

    Second trimester are still relatively safe but as the baby is bigger th procedure is more intensive. Instead of with the first trimester where they just suck the baby out in one go usually, the second trimester usually uses a D&E procedure where they tear the baby apart in the womb and count the body parts to determine that the procedure is finished. (Quite graphic but I don’t want to sugar coat it)

    third trimester abortions are usually much riskier. This video will give the details to why

    yup.

    As a point of clarification, the part of the Texas law banning abortions after 20 weeks has already been upheld by the Courts and was not affected by today’s ruling.

    • #92
  3. Mate De Inactive
    Mate De
    @MateDe

    Mark, thanks for that. A bit of good news to come out of this today

    • #93
  4. Kate Braestrup Member
    Kate Braestrup
    @GrannyDude

    Columbo:

    Kate Braestrup:Was this directed only at the likes of Gosnell? Would you be content if abortions in Texas were safe for the women involved, even if the babies ended up dead either way?

    Maybe I’m wrong, but it seems to me that if the Texas law was drafted with the intention of limiting access to abortion, was challenged by pro-abortion activists on the grounds that it limited access to abortion, and was declared (?) unconstitutional by SCOTUS because it limited access to abortion, it’s …a duck.

    The Texas law was created to raise the health standards in these abortion facilities. I don’t know if any were Gosnell-like but my understanding is that they weren’t up to the minimum of health standards that you would want for such procedures to be performed on young women. From one article:

    “Today’s abortion clinics are the true ‘back alleys’ of abortion mythology,” said Denise Burke, vice president of legal affairs at Americans United for Life. “They consistently operate in the ‘red light district’ of American medicine where the problem of substandard abortion providers is longstanding and pervasive. The fight against this public health crisis will continue, despite today’s ruling.”

    By the way, they got Al Capone for Federal tax evasion.

    Well, I guess. Except that Al Capone didn’t have the support of large numbers of Americans (not to mention the active participation in his activities of around a million American women every year).  That pesky problem of living in a democracy.

    As I see it, this SCOTUS decision is yet another instance of judicial overreach whose analysis is complicated by the subject. As with Obergefels, it is hard to escape the conclusion that there are those who would be considerably less scandalized had SCOTUS instead affirmed the Texas laws and, for good measure, made them the law of the land.

    In any case, I’m not crazy about seeing the oft-repeated calumny of the pro-choicers —that pro-lifers only pretend to care about the health and well-being of women, when ending abortion is the goal— apparently confirmed.

    • #94
  5. Kate Braestrup Member
    Kate Braestrup
    @GrannyDude

    Mark: As a point of clarification, the part of the Texas law banning abortions after 20 weeks has already been upheld by the Courts and was not affected by today’s ruling.

    yes—and that is important, I think.

    • #95
  6. 9thDistrictNeighbor Member
    9thDistrictNeighbor
    @9thDistrictNeighbor

    Kate Braestrup: Except that Al Capone didn’t have the support of large numbers of Americans (not to mention the active participation in his activities of around a million American women every year).

    Actually, he did. Bootlegging was not only seen by many as a public good, righting a wrong, but even a brave thing to do. Alphonse had an entire network of women making bathtub gin for his cheaper markets.  And one of the more famous photos of a line of men waiting outside a soup kitchen in the depths of the Depression was taken at 9th and State Street in Chicago—a soup kitchen run by Al Capone himself. In December 1931, the Chicago Tribune noted that he served 120,000 meals, including a beef stew to families that Thanksgiving. Capone would go and shake hands with the men in line. The kitchen served three meals a day. At a time when John Dillinger was considered a hero, running a charity with the fruits of your labor was not bad at all for a guy from New York with syphilis, and why they could only get him for tax evasion and not murder.

    • #96
  7. Tom Meyer, Ed. Member
    Tom Meyer, Ed.
    @tommeyer

    Kate Braestrup:

    In any case, I’m not crazy about seeing the oft-repeated calumny of the pro-choicers —that pro-lifers only pretend to care about the health and well-being of women, when ending abortion is the goal— apparently confirmed.

    Well said. The decision upholding these laws can be dumb — and the underlying law of Roe and Casey terrible — but that hardly means that the laws were well-crafted or honest.

    • #97
  8. Kate Braestrup Member
    Kate Braestrup
    @GrannyDude

    9thDistrictNeighbor:

    Kate Braestrup: Except that Al Capone didn’t have the support of large numbers of Americans (not to mention the active participation in his activities of around a million American women every year).

    Actually, he did. Bootlegging was not only seen by many as a public good, righting a wrong, but even a brave thing to do. Alphonse had an entire network of women making bathtub gin for his cheaper markets. And one of the more famous photos of a line of men waiting outside a soup kitchen in the depths of the Depression was taken at 9th and State Street in Chicago—a soup kitchen run by Al Capone himself. In December 1931, the Chicago Tribune noted that he served 120,000 meals, including a beef stew to families that Thanksgiving. Capone would go and shake hands with the men in line. The kitchen served three meals a day. At a time when John Dillinger was considered a hero, running a charity with the fruits of your labor was not bad at all for a guy from New York with syphilis, and why they could only get him for tax evasion and not murder.

    Interesting!

    • #98
  9. dukenaltum Inactive
    dukenaltum
    @dukenaltum

    dukenaltum: But more importantly you could answer about what examples did he have?

    Editor: Kindly delete the modified comment in toto. Thank you.

    Ciao,

    A.

    • #99
  10. Ricochet Editor's Desk Editor
    Ricochet Editor's Desk
    @RicochetEditorsDesk

    dukenaltum:Editor: Kindly delete the modified comment in toto. Thank you.

    Done, sir.

    • #100
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