Surprise! The Supreme Court Intervenes On Behalf Of Women’s Rights

Planned Parenthood Rally Perry, Austin Texas by scATW on Flickr under CC 2_0

In the latest twist in the legal war on women’s reproductive rights, the Supreme Court “stayed” part of a ruling  by the Fifth circuit.

The majority granted part of the request made by the Center for Reproductive Rights.

The Court of Appeals’ stay order with reference to the district court’s order enjoining the admitting-privileges requirement as applied to the McAllen and El Paso clinics is vacated. The Court of Appeals’ stay order with reference to the district court’s order enjoining the ambulatory surgical center requirement is vacated.

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Actually, this is good news since Scalia (along with Alito and Thomas) would have denied the request in its entirety.

As reported, the Fifth circuit upheld the Texas law that closed all but 8 clinics that provided women with various reproductive health services, including abortions.

Following that ruling, the Center for Reproductive Rights asked the Supreme Court to “stay” or suspend the ruling pending a judicial review by SCOTUS.  While Justice Scalia received the order, and could have acted alone, he opted to consult the whole court.

This order is a welcomed surprise since the Chief Justice and Justice Kennedy joined with the liberal wing to grant this request.

In a statement, Nancy Northrup, the President of the Center for Reproductive Rights said:

The U.S. Supreme Court gave Texas women a tremendous victory today. Tomorrow, thirteen clinics across the state will be allowed to reopen and provide women with safe and legal abortion care in their own communities.
“This fight against Texas’ sham abortion law is not over. HB2 was designed to gut the constitutional protections of Roe v. Wade and half of the state’s clinics remain closed. We will continue this legal battle until the rights of Texas women are restored.

This means the case goes back to the fifth circuit and could eventually wind its way back to the Supreme Court.  Had the court denied this request, those five clinics would be shut down throughout the appeals process.

For now, women in Texas have regained access to reproductive health services, which includes abortions.

I realize it has been said before and it will probably be said again.

The fact that we’re having this debate over women’s access to reproductive rights should have everyone up in arms.  Imagine if men had to meet arbitrary government criteria that has absolutely no medical justification and get permission from their boss to get access to viagra.

The reality is I’m glad for the women of Texas, but I’m also mad because if men could get pregnant, we wouldn’t be having this debate.  In fact, there would probably be free birth control and an abortion clinic at every 7-11.

Image: Planned Parenthood


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