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Struggle for Reproductive Rights Not Over in Texas
- Updated: July 2, 2015
by Eric Galatas/TNS
AUSTIN, Texas – Women’s health advocates in Texas are breathing a collective sigh of relief, after the U.S. Supreme Court ordered the state to delay a new law that would have closed all but nine of the clinics in Texas that perform abortion services.
House Bill 2, passed in 2013, forces clinics to comply with hospital-like standards. If the high court hadn’t intervened, the law would have gone into effect yesterday, leaving an area of the state 550 miles wide without an abortion provider.
Susan Hays, an attorney with NARAL Pro-Choice Texas, praised the court’s action.
Women’s health organizations are mobilizing after the U.S. Supreme Court delayed a new Texas law that would leave the state with fewer than 10 clinics providing abortion services. Photo: Night Owl/Wikimedia Commons.
“Texas is a huge state, and there are no more abortion clinics in most of the western third of it,” she says. “This law would’ve closed the clinics in El Paso, leaving Texans without clinics west of San Antonio, Dallas-Fort Worth or Austin.”
Hays points out the delay is only temporary, until the Supreme Court can review the case. The Texas governor’s office says it sees the move as part of the court’s ongoing “attack on state’s rights.”
If the high court determines the law puts an undue burden on women seeking abortion, it could decide to hear oral arguments as early as next spring.
Hays says the prospect of denying some Texas women access to health services is having a galvanizing effect on the movement for reproductive rights. She’s convinced public opinion does have a role to play in how the high court might rule, and points to the recent decision on marriage equality.
“With access to safe abortion services, American public opinion really hasn’t changed much over the last several decades,” she says. “Most people don’t want to second-guess the healthcare decision-making of a family.”
NARAL Pro-Choice Texas says the next several steps include educating residents about abortion restrictions in the state, and ultimately electing candidates who support women’s reproductive rights.
Hays admits it’s a long-term strategy, but says this week’s Supreme Court action gives the movement something to build on.
