How Conservatives Have Successfully Circumvented Roe v. Wade

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How Conservatives Have Successfully Circumvented Roe v. Wade

March 19th, 2016

Awake Goy

abortion.texas.supreme.court.hb2.indiana_occupycorporatism Susanne Posel ,Chief Editor Occupy Corporatism | Media Spokesperson, HEALTH MAX Brands

According to a report from local media in Texas, there has been a 14% drop in abortions in that state in 2014 and this phenomenon can be attributed to a 2013 change in laws.

Then Governor Rick Perry signed into law HB2 that required 1) abortion doctors to have hospital admittance privileges; 2) abortion clinics must have hospital-like surgical facilities; 3) restrictions on prescriptions for abortion-inducing drugs; and 4) abortions after 20 weeks is prohibited.

There were 40 abortion clinics in Texas prior to the new mandates were implemented. Currently there are only 18 clinics left.

Because getting an abortion in Texas has become a sojourn, Laura Moser is part of a group that “ drives women to get abortions”.

Moser points out that “if you don’t have a car, or you can’t pay for gas, or you don’t have anyone who can chauffeur you, you may have to put in some real effort to reach a clinic… And, because as of February 2012 Texas has one of those awesome sonogram laws that require women seeking abortion services to show up 24 hours in advance to see the fetus on a screen and listen to its heartbeat and hear a spiel about the sanctity of life, women have to make two trips.”

The impact of Texas’ laws were recorded in a study released by the University of Texas (UT) that documented: “For women whose nearest clinic closed (38%), the mean one-way distance traveled was 85 miles, compared with 22 miles for women whose nearest clinic remained open. … [M]ore women whose nearest clinic closed traveled more than 50 miles (44% vs 10%), had out-of-pocket expenses greater than $100 (32% vs 20%), had a frustrated demand for medication abortion (37% vs 22%), and reported that it was somewhat or very hard to get to the clinic.”

The hostility toward abortions and a woman’s right to choose has caused America to become a frightening place for women.

Jessica Pieklo, vice president of law and courts at RH Reality Check, said in an interview that bills like HB2 “takes a bunch of different provisions and stitches them all together” like a “Frankenstein’s monster of anti-abortion legislation.”

Pieklo reminded everyone that the Supreme Court has ruled that “an abortion restriction cannot place an undue burden on a woman seeking to terminate a pregnancy”, and yet because of the broadening of “the standards on what constitutions an undue burden” this ruling has provided the leeway necessary to make laws like HB2 a reality.

This is because for the last 5 years, nearly 500 laws have been passed across the US that use the guise of upholding the US Constitution while simultaneously restrict the freedoms of women when it comes to pregnancy.

In Indiana, the newest law coming down to Governor Mike Pence to sign stretches the current mandates that a woman receive counseling before getting an abortion and adds that if a woman wants the procedure, she will have to “undergo numerous ultrasounds, wait 18 hours after first requesting the procedure, and listen to fetal heartbeats.”

This bill does not provide for abortions “abortions based on the diagnosis of a disability such as Down syndrome even when it is likely that a fetus will not survive.”

This is why the Supreme Court case, Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt is so important to abortion activists and republican leaders alike.

Ilyse Hogue, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, said about the case : “Either we will empower women and families by protecting and expanding reproductive freedom, including the right to an abortion, or we will all but eliminate access to abortion in many states across this country. With access to abortion gone, women also lose the ability to determine our families, our lives, and our destinies.”

And Nancy Northup, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights, called HB2 and laws like it “sham regulations designed to do one thing, and one thing only: shut down clinics.”