Supreme Court Must Invalidate Texas Sham Law
In a powerful
op-ed in USA Today, Center for
Reproductive Rights president and CEO Nancy Northup outlines what is at stake
in the upcoming U.S. Supreme Court case Whole
Woman’s Health v. Cole—the most significant abortion rights case in almost
25 years.
Northup notes that in agreeing to
review the case against the Texas sham law that uses phony health concerns to shut
down 80 percent of the state’s abortion providers, the Supreme Court has “set
the stage for a decisive clash between two disparate conversations about
abortion in America.”
One conversation is mired in
stigma and junk science, and seeks to eliminate legal abortion care. The other
is backed by the medical establishment and relies on women’s firsthand
experiences to validate the importance of safe, accessible reproductive
services.
If the Supreme Court allows the
Texas law to stand, other states are likely to pass similar laws that could
make abortion care dramatically less accessible for women across the country.
Over the last four decades, the Court has repeatedly
affirmed that a woman has a constitutionally protected right to end a pregnancy
and that states cannot pass laws that create an undue burden for women
exercising that right.