FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: February 4, 2016
Contact: Mallory Quigley, [email protected] 202-223-8073
Texas Law Protecting Health & Safety of Women is Both Reasonable & Just
Washington, D.C. – Susan B. Anthony List was proud to join its coalition partner Concerned Women for America in filing an amicus brief yesterday in the potential landmark case Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt. The case involves a Texas law designed to provide equal protection for the health and safety of women in abortion clinics operating in the state.
This is the first time in almost a decade (Gonzales v. Carhart in 2007) that the U.S. Supreme Court has taken up a case regarding abortion regulations. Oral argument will be heard on March 2nd and a decision will be made by the end of June.
Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of Susan B. Anthony List, commented:
“There is an urgent and real need to establish effective health and safety standards for the abortion industry. The Gosnell case in Philadelphia and numerous instances of women either injured or killed in Illinois, Florida, Maryland, and elsewhere prove that this industry is incapable of self-regulation. Texas’s action to require abortion facilities to meet the standards for ambulatory surgery and to require physicians to have admitting privileges in a 30-mile radius of their operations is both reasonable and just.
“Our brief in this case, written by Ken Klukowski of the American Civil Rights Union, shows why the Texas law is constitutional and wise. The brief establishes that to fail to adopt such standards because of some presumed unique nature of abortion would discriminate against women and afford them less concern than would be applied in situations involving procedures applicable only to men or other identified groups. Finally, even under the legal test – intermediate scrutiny – for laws that affect women uniquely, the Texas law easily passes muster, because it involves a compelling interest in protecting women from institutions that refuse to make investments in their safety and well-being.”
Charlotte Lozier Institute, the education and research arm of SBA List, Students for Life and CitizenLink have also filed an amicus brief in Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt. The brief documents the decline in demand for abortions across the country over time, due to increases in the percentage of younger Americans identifying as pro-life as well as opting to carry their babies to term after an unexpected pregnancy.
“Texas’s abortion numbers track well with national trends,” CLI president Chuck Donovan said. “Moreover, Texas’s health standards are justifiable safeguards, including treating abortion sites as ambulatory surgical centers, a measure specifically recommended by the grand jury that reviewed the tragic errors Pennsylvania made in the Gosnell case.”
The Susan B. Anthony List and its Political Action Committees, the SBA List Candidate Fund and Women Speak Out PAC, spent $16.71 million in the 2014 election cycle to defeat pro-abortion incumbents and elect pro-life candidates to federal and statewide office. The SBA List is dedicated to pursuing policies and electing candidates who will reduce and ultimately end abortion. To that end, the SBA List emphasizes the education, promotion, mobilization, and election of pro-life women. The SBA List is a network of more than 465,000 pro-life Americans nationwide.
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