Post by pavel on Jan 23, 2016 6:51:27 GMT -6
Today marks 43 years since the U.S. Supreme Court guaranteed a constitutional right to an abortion. In Roe v. Wade, seven justices ruled that the right to privacy, protected by the 14th Amendment, encompasses the right to terminate a pregnancy.
Roe, which itself was a challenge to a Texas anti-abortion law, was the banner case in the fight for reproductive freedom in the United States, but it also created a deep divide that affects nearly every aspect of American politics, from elections to judicial nominations. Since 1973, the anti-abortion movement has built a groundswell of support for overturning Roe. In recent years, the movement has enjdoyed a tide of anti-abortion legislation making the procedure ever more difficult and expensive to access, though the measures skirt the line of constitutionality.
Now, more than four decades after Justice Harry Blackmun wrote that Texas’ then-restriction on legal abortion “without regard to pregnancy stage and without recognition of the other interests involved, is violative of the Due Process Clause,” we find ourselves at another critical moment in the American fight for reproductive rights.
On March 2, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments for and against elements of House Bill 2, Texas’ omnibus anti-abortion law, almost two years after independent Texas abortion providers filed their first challenge to the law in an Austin federal court. The case is styled Whole Woman’s Health v. Cole, and it challenges the most restrictive package of anti-abortion laws in the country. While Roe established that abortion is a protected constitutional right, the court has given states more and more power to regulate the procedure over the years. Since 1973, states have collectively passed 1,074 abortion restrictions, 288 of them since 2010 and the tea party’s rise to power.
Read more: www.texasobserver.org/texas-abortion-case-hb-2-explained/
Roe, which itself was a challenge to a Texas anti-abortion law, was the banner case in the fight for reproductive freedom in the United States, but it also created a deep divide that affects nearly every aspect of American politics, from elections to judicial nominations. Since 1973, the anti-abortion movement has built a groundswell of support for overturning Roe. In recent years, the movement has enjdoyed a tide of anti-abortion legislation making the procedure ever more difficult and expensive to access, though the measures skirt the line of constitutionality.
Now, more than four decades after Justice Harry Blackmun wrote that Texas’ then-restriction on legal abortion “without regard to pregnancy stage and without recognition of the other interests involved, is violative of the Due Process Clause,” we find ourselves at another critical moment in the American fight for reproductive rights.
On March 2, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments for and against elements of House Bill 2, Texas’ omnibus anti-abortion law, almost two years after independent Texas abortion providers filed their first challenge to the law in an Austin federal court. The case is styled Whole Woman’s Health v. Cole, and it challenges the most restrictive package of anti-abortion laws in the country. While Roe established that abortion is a protected constitutional right, the court has given states more and more power to regulate the procedure over the years. Since 1973, states have collectively passed 1,074 abortion restrictions, 288 of them since 2010 and the tea party’s rise to power.
Read more: www.texasobserver.org/texas-abortion-case-hb-2-explained/