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| Statement From New Mexico Alliance for Life on Supreme Court Ruling Today, Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt |
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WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today on a 5-3 vote, the United States Supreme Court struck down key parts of HB 2, the Texas abortion facility safety law. However, HB 2’s ban on abortions after the fifth month and the requirement that drug-induced abortions be performed according to FDA regulations will remain in effect.
The following statement is attributed to New Mexico Alliance for Life’s Executive Director, Elisa Martinez:
“Today’s Surpeme Court ruling means that abortion centers will not have to meet the mininimum standards of any other outpatient surgical center, putting women’s health and safety at risk. How is this safe for women? As we saw with Kermit Gosnell in Philadelphia, the profit driven abortion industry is not willing to regulate itself and allows unsafe and deplorable conditions. In Albuquerque, the scandal ridden Curtis Boyd late-term abortion center that just received a criminal referral from a congressional investigation, sends women to deliver a dead baby into a hotel room toilet. How is this safe for women? The minimum standards for women’s health and safety in HB2 was fought by the abortion industry and reveals their motives, it is not safety, but “access” at the cost of women’ safety. Despite the ruling today, we will continue to fight to protect women and their babies from an unsafe and profit driven abortion industry.”
In Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt, several abortion providers challenged two safety provisions of HB 2, a bill the Texas Legislature passed in 2013 by overwhelming margins. While dismissed by abortion providers in Texas as unnecessary, the state’s safety inspection reports of several abortion facilities run by the lead plaintiff, Whole Woman’s Health, show numerous serious violations of current law that endanger the health and safety of tens of thousands every year, including the repeated failure to properly sterilize surgical instruments used from woman to woman.
A staff attorney for Texas Alliance for Life’s summarized a lengthy list of health and safety violations at abortion facilities operated by Whole Woman’s Health in this article, “Whole Woman’s Health Fights HB 2’s Increased Abortion Safety Standards while Violating Current Safety Laws.”
The two challenged provisions of HB 2 intended to raise the safety standards at abortion facilities. The first provision requires physicians who perform abortions to have admitting privileges at a local hospital. In the event of a serious complication that requires the woman to be rushed to an emergency room, the physician should be able to follow his or her patient and continue treatment at the hospital. Without privileges, the physician would essentially abandon the patient.
The second provision increases safety standards at licensed abortion facilities to the level of the 450 outpatient surgery centers (Ambulatory Surgical Centers or ASCs) in Texas, which perform the same or similar procedures. Patients can expect that common outpatient procedures like colonoscopy or cataract removal will be performed in an ASC. Even dilation and curettage (D&C) following a miscarriage will likely be performed in a hospital or ASC operating room. D&C is by far the most common method for elective abortion performed in the substandard abortion facilities.
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The New Mexico Alliance for Life is a nonpartisan organization focused on changing state and local laws by empowering women with better and informed choices when facing unplanned or difficult pregnancies and advocating for better protections for women and unborn children from an unsafe abortion industry. For more information visitwww.nmallianceforlife.org
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