{"id":14800,"date":"2016-06-27T22:35:00","date_gmt":"2016-06-27T22:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/news\/supreme-court-ruling-blasted-for-pro-abortion-bias-in-texas-ruling-13457\/"},"modified":"2016-06-27T22:35:00","modified_gmt":"2016-06-27T22:35:00","slug":"supreme-court-ruling-blasted-for-pro-abortion-bias-in-texas-ruling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2016\/06\/supreme-court-ruling-blasted-for-pro-abortion-bias-in-texas-ruling\/","title":{"rendered":"Supreme Court ruling blasted for pro-abortion bias in Texas ruling"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/images\/size340\/2015_March_for_Life_in_Washington_DC_on_Jan_22_2015_Credit_Addie_Mena_CNA_2_CNA_1_22_15.jpg\"><\/p>\n<p>Washington D.C., Jun 27, 2016 \/ 04:35 pm (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">CNA\/EWTN News<\/a>).- In striking down Texas\u2019 regulations of abortion clinics, the Supreme Court showed favoritism toward the supposed \u201cright to abortion\u201d over states\u2019 interests in the health of women and normal court proceedings, critics said Monday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Court has rejected a common-sense law protecting women from abortion facilities that put profits above patient safety,\u201d said Deirdre McQuade, assistant director for pro-life communications at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Secretariat of Pro-Life Activities.<\/p>\n<p>In a 5-3 vote, the Supreme Court struck down a Texas law that included two key regulations of abortion clinics \u2013 abortionists had to have admitting privileges at a local hospital, and clinics had to meet the standards of ambulatory surgical centers.<\/p>\n<p>The court ruled that the law put an \u201cundue burden\u201d on a women\u2019s right to an abortion, saying that it posed a \u201csubstantial obstacle\u201d to that right without showing the necessary benefits of its regulations to women\u2019s health.<\/p>\n<p>Regarding the admitting privileges requirement, the court majority said there was already a \u201cworking arrangement\u201d in place between hospitals and abortionists. Because of the new requirement, around half the clinics in the state closed, they said, citing \u201csufficient evidence\u201d from \u201cthe record.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The court also said that requiring clinics to meet the standards of ambulatory surgical centers, \u201cprovides few, if any, health benefits for women, poses a substantial obstacle to women seeking abortions, and constitutes an \u2018undue burden\u2019 on their constitutional right to do so.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Since clinics closing meant longer waits, longer distances between clinics, and more crowds at each clinic, this all presented an unconstitutional \u201cundue burden\u201d on a woman\u2019s \u201cright to abortion,\u201d the court said.<\/p>\n<p>The dissenting justices sharply disagreed. The closing of clinics in one part of the state shouldn\u2019t mean that clinics in another area should be free from the law, Justice Samuel Alito argued.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe possibility that the admitting privileges requirement might have caused a closure in Lubbock is no reason to issue a facial injunction exempting Houston clinics from that requirement,\u201d he stated.<\/p>\n<p>Justice Clarence Thomas added that the \u201cdecision perpetuates the Court\u2019s habit of applying different rules to different constitutional rights \u2013 especially the putative right to abortion.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>After the Court\u2019s ruling, Texas attorney general Ken Paxton defended the Texas law, saying it \u201cwas an effort to improve minimum safety standards and ensure capable care for Texas women.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Other Catholics spoke out against the majority opinion.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Catholic Church in Texas, in communion with millions of Catholics across America and the world, will continue its efforts to protect life and human dignity from conception to natural death,\u201d the Texas Catholic bishops stated.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSurgical abortion is an invasive procedure that poses numerous and serious medical complications,\u201d they said. \u201cThe state has a legitimate interest in ensuring the maximum level of safety for the woman subjected to the procedure and that viable emergency care is available if complications such as hemorrhage, infection, uterine perforation, blood clots, cervical tears, or allergic reactions occur.\u201d<br>\n\u00a0<br>\nThe Court\u2019s opinion in Whole Women\u2019s Health v. Hellerstedt is problematic for a number of reasons, legal experts warned.<\/p>\n<p>First, the Court continued its trend of having a special preference for protecting abortion rights, Rick Garnett, law professor at the University of Notre Dame, noted, calling it the Court\u2019s \u201ctendency to bend its own rules in abortion-related cases.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>There was \u201cno language\u201d about \u201cthe government\u2019s interest in \u2018preserving and promoting fetal life\u2019\u201d in the decision, said Lucia Silecchia, a law professor at The Catholic University of America. This was expressed in a previous case \u2013 Planned Parenthood v. Casey \u2013 but the Court didn\u2019t invoke it in Monday\u2019s ruling, she said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo have the Supreme Court address abortion without addressing this interest in any meaningful way is a new low in abortion jurisprudence,\u201d she told CNA.<\/p>\n<p>That third parties with financial interest brought the case to the Court, and not women directly affected by the law, undermined the argument that the case was about women\u2019s rights, Silecchia added.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDespite the fact that they dubiously asserted the rights of women, their real interest in this case was not women\u2019s health but their own profit,\u201d Silecchia said of \u201cthe abortion industry and abortionists\u201d who brought the case. The clinics could have abided by the regulations, she added, but \u201cit would cost a substantial amount of money to retrofit facilities or purchase new land.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Justice Thomas noted the problem of hearing third parties bring a suit, writing in his dissent that \u201cordinarily, plaintiffs cannot file suits to vindicate the constitutional rights of others.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut,\u201d he continued, \u201cthe Court employs a different approach to rights that it favors.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Also, \u201cthe majority disregarded entirely the state's interest in protecting fetal life and instead second-guessed the state legislature's judgments about health and safety,\u201d Garnett said.<\/p>\n<p>That deference to the states shouldn\u2019t apply in all cases, but it should have applied in this particular case, Silecchia clarified.<\/p>\n<p>The Texas law came after a massive grand jury report on horrific abuses at the Philadelphia clinic of Dr. Kermit Gosnell, which became the subject of national outrage. This and other reports of abuses in abortion clinics \u201cshould make state legislatures interested in greater regulation, not less,\u201d Silecchia said.<\/p>\n<p>The majority opinion in the ruling acknowledged Gosnell\u2019s behavior at \u201cterribly wrong,\u201d but added that \u201c(d)etermined wrongdoers, already ignoring existing statutes and safety measures, are unlikely to be convinced to adopt safe practices by a new overlay of regulations.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This court opinion \u201cwill make it harder\u201d for states to regulate such abuses in the future, Silecchia said. \u201cAfter this opinion, there is no meaningful guidance to states as to how they can protect the health of women post-Hellerstedt.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, in her concurrence, argued that abortion is now a safe procedure and doesn\u2019t merit such regulations posed by the Texas law. \u201cMany medical procedures, including childbirth, are far more dangerous to patients, yet are not subject to ambulatory surgical-center or hospital admitting-privileges requirements,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>However, Silecchia insisted, \u201cwomen deserve higher standards of care, not lower.\u201d And yet the ruling will \u201cmake it harder for states to pass legislation that raises the standards of care that women receive.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As to the Court\u2019s claim that the previous \u201cworking arrangement\u201d between hospitals and doctors nullified the need for \u201cadmitting privileges\u201d for abortionists, Silecchia said the Court\u2019s term \u201cis vague and it is hard to tell whether this is a meaningful safeguard.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHaving a local hospital grant admitting privileges is, at least, a minimal assessment of the physician's medical competence,\u201d she said, adding that an abortionist with an admitting privilege might be \u201cmore likely to err on the side of transport to a hospital\u201d in case of a medical emergency.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<div class=\"feedflare\">\n<a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/catholicnewsagency\/dailynews?a=B9Go_H_U9-s:4iYWoL6sh0A:yIl2AUoC8zA\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/catholicnewsagency\/dailynews?d=yIl2AUoC8zA\" border=\"0\"><\/a>\n<\/div>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~r\/catholicnewsagency\/dailynews\/~4\/B9Go_H_U9-s\" height=\"1\" width=\"1\" alt=\"\"><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/images\/size340\/2015_March_for_Life_in_Washington_DC_on_Jan_22_2015_Credit_Addie_Mena_CNA_2_CNA_1_22_15.jpg\"><\/p>\n<p>Washington D.C., Jun 27, 2016 \/ 04:35 pm (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/\" target=\"_self\">CNA\/EWTN News<\/a>).- In striking down Texas&rsquo; regulations of abortion clinics, the Supreme Court showed favoritism toward the supposed &ldquo;right to abortion&rdquo; over states&rsquo; interests in the health of women and normal court proceedings, critics said Monday.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;The Court has rejected a common-sense law protecting women from abortion facilities that put profits above patient safety,&rdquo; said Deirdre McQuade, assistant director for pro-life communications at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops&#8217; Secretariat of Pro-Life Activities.<\/p>\n<p>In a 5-3 vote, the Supreme Court struck down a Texas law that included two key regulations of abortion clinics &ndash; abortionists had to have admitting privileges at a local hospital, and clinics had to meet the standards of ambulatory surgical centers.<\/p>\n<p>The court ruled that the law put an &ldquo;undue burden&rdquo; on a women&rsquo;s right to an abortion, saying that it posed a &ldquo;substantial obstacle&rdquo; to that right without showing the necessary benefits of its regulations to women&rsquo;s health.<\/p>\n<p>Regarding the admitting privileges requirement, the court majority said there was already a &ldquo;working arrangement&rdquo; in place between hospitals and abortionists. Because of the new requirement, around half the clinics in the state closed, they said, citing &ldquo;sufficient evidence&rdquo; from &ldquo;the record.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>The court also said that requiring clinics to meet the standards of ambulatory surgical centers, &ldquo;provides few, if any, health benefits for women, poses a substantial obstacle to women seeking abortions, and constitutes an &lsquo;undue burden&rsquo; on their constitutional right to do so.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Since clinics closing meant longer waits, longer distances between clinics, and more crowds at each clinic, this all presented an unconstitutional &ldquo;undue burden&rdquo; on a woman&rsquo;s &ldquo;right to abortion,&rdquo; the court said.<\/p>\n<p>The dissenting justices sharply disagreed. The closing of clinics in one part of the state shouldn&rsquo;t mean that clinics in another area should be free from the law, Justice Samuel Alito argued.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;The possibility that the admitting privileges requirement might have caused a closure in Lubbock is no reason to issue a facial injunction exempting Houston clinics from that requirement,&rdquo; he stated.<\/p>\n<p>Justice Clarence Thomas added that the &ldquo;decision perpetuates the Court&rsquo;s habit of applying different rules to different constitutional rights &#8211; especially the putative right to abortion.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>After the Court&rsquo;s ruling, Texas attorney general Ken Paxton defended the Texas law, saying it &ldquo;was an effort to improve minimum safety standards and ensure capable care for Texas women.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Other Catholics spoke out against the majority opinion.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;The Catholic Church in Texas, in communion with millions of Catholics across America and the world, will continue its efforts to protect life and human dignity from conception to natural death,&rdquo; the Texas Catholic bishops stated.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Surgical abortion is an invasive procedure that poses numerous and serious medical complications,&rdquo; they said. &ldquo;The state has a legitimate interest in ensuring the maximum level of safety for the woman subjected to the procedure and that viable emergency care is available if complications such as hemorrhage, infection, uterine perforation, blood clots, cervical tears, or allergic reactions occur.&rdquo;<br \/>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\nThe Court&rsquo;s opinion in Whole Women&rsquo;s Health v. Hellerstedt is problematic for a number of reasons, legal experts warned.<\/p>\n<p>First, the Court continued its trend of having a special preference for protecting abortion rights, Rick Garnett, law professor at the University of Notre Dame, noted, calling it the Court&rsquo;s &ldquo;tendency to bend its own rules in abortion-related cases.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>There was &ldquo;no language&rdquo; about &ldquo;the government&rsquo;s interest in &lsquo;preserving and promoting fetal life&rsquo;&rdquo; in the decision, said Lucia Silecchia, a law professor at The Catholic University of America. This was expressed in a previous case &ndash; Planned Parenthood v. Casey &ndash; but the Court didn&rsquo;t invoke it in Monday&rsquo;s ruling, she said.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;To have the Supreme Court address abortion without addressing this interest in any meaningful way is a new low in abortion jurisprudence,&rdquo; she told CNA.<\/p>\n<p>That third parties with financial interest brought the case to the Court, and not women directly affected by the law, undermined the argument that the case was about women&rsquo;s rights, Silecchia added.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Despite the fact that they dubiously asserted the rights of women, their real interest in this case was not women&rsquo;s health but their own profit,&rdquo; Silecchia said of &ldquo;the abortion industry and abortionists&rdquo; who brought the case. The clinics could have abided by the regulations, she added, but &ldquo;it would cost a substantial amount of money to retrofit facilities or purchase new land.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Justice Thomas noted the problem of hearing third parties bring a suit, writing in his dissent that &ldquo;ordinarily, plaintiffs cannot file suits to vindicate the constitutional rights of others.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;But,&rdquo; he continued, &ldquo;the Court employs a different approach to rights that it favors.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Also, &ldquo;the majority disregarded entirely the state&#8217;s interest in protecting fetal life and instead second-guessed the state legislature&#8217;s judgments about health and safety,&rdquo; Garnett said.<\/p>\n<p>That deference to the states shouldn&rsquo;t apply in all cases, but it should have applied in this particular case, Silecchia clarified.<\/p>\n<p>The Texas law came after a massive grand jury report on horrific abuses at the Philadelphia clinic of Dr. Kermit Gosnell, which became the subject of national outrage. This and other reports of abuses in abortion clinics &ldquo;should make state legislatures interested in greater regulation, not less,&rdquo; Silecchia said.<\/p>\n<p>The majority opinion in the ruling acknowledged Gosnell&rsquo;s behavior at &ldquo;terribly wrong,&rdquo; but added that &ldquo;(d)etermined wrongdoers, already ignoring existing statutes and safety measures, are unlikely to be convinced to adopt safe practices by a new overlay of regulations.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>This court opinion &ldquo;will make it harder&rdquo; for states to regulate such abuses in the future, Silecchia said. &ldquo;After this opinion, there is no meaningful guidance to states as to how they can protect the health of women post-Hellerstedt.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, in her concurrence, argued that abortion is now a safe procedure and doesn&rsquo;t merit such regulations posed by the Texas law. &ldquo;Many medical procedures, including childbirth, are far more dangerous to patients, yet are not subject to ambulatory surgical-center or hospital admitting-privileges requirements,&rdquo; she said.<\/p>\n<p>However, Silecchia insisted, &ldquo;women deserve higher standards of care, not lower.&rdquo; And yet the ruling will &ldquo;make it harder for states to pass legislation that raises the standards of care that women receive.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>As to the Court&rsquo;s claim that the previous &ldquo;working arrangement&rdquo; between hospitals and doctors nullified the need for &ldquo;admitting privileges&rdquo; for abortionists, Silecchia said the Court&rsquo;s term &ldquo;is vague and it is hard to tell whether this is a meaningful safeguard.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Having a local hospital grant admitting privileges is, at least, a minimal assessment of the physician&#8217;s medical competence,&rdquo; she said, adding that an abortionist with an admitting privilege might be &ldquo;more likely to err on the side of transport to a hospital&rdquo; in case of a medical emergency.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/catholicnewsagency\/dailynews?a=B9Go_H_U9-s:4iYWoL6sh0A:yIl2AUoC8zA\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/catholicnewsagency\/dailynews?d=yIl2AUoC8zA\" border=\"0\"><\/a>\n<\/div>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~r\/catholicnewsagency\/dailynews\/~4\/B9Go_H_U9-s\" height=\"1\" width=\"1\" alt=\"\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1031,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-us"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Supreme Court ruling blasted for pro-abortion bias in Texas ruling<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Washington D.C., Jun 27, 2016 \/ 04:35 pm (CNA\/EWTN News).- In striking down Texas&rsquo; regulations of abortion clinics, the Supreme Court showed favoritism toward the supposed &ldquo;right to abortion&rdquo; over states&rsquo; interests in the health of women and normal court proceedings, critics said Monday. &ldquo;The Court has rejected a common-sense law protecting women from abortion facilities that put profits above patient safety,&rdquo; said Deirdre McQuade, assistant director for pro-life communications at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops&#039; Secretariat of Pro-Life Activities. In a 5-3 vote, the Supreme Court struck down a Texas law that included two key regulations of abortion clinics &ndash; abortionists had to have admitting privileges at a local hospital, and clinics had to meet the standards of ambulatory surgical centers. The court ruled that the law put an &ldquo;undue burden&rdquo; on a women&rsquo;s right to an abortion, saying that it posed a &ldquo;substantial obstacle&rdquo; to that right without showing the necessary benefits of its regulations to women&rsquo;s health. Regarding the admitting privileges requirement, the court majority said there was already a &ldquo;working arrangement&rdquo; in place between hospitals and abortionists. Because of the new requirement, around half the clinics in the state closed, they said, citing &ldquo;sufficient evidence&rdquo; from &ldquo;the record.&rdquo; The court also said that requiring clinics to meet the standards of ambulatory surgical centers, &ldquo;provides few, if any, health benefits for women, poses a substantial obstacle to women seeking abortions, and constitutes an &lsquo;undue burden&rsquo; on their constitutional right to do so.&rdquo; Since clinics closing meant longer waits, longer distances between clinics, and more crowds at each clinic, this all presented an unconstitutional &ldquo;undue burden&rdquo; on a woman&rsquo;s &ldquo;right to abortion,&rdquo; the court said. The dissenting justices sharply disagreed. The closing of clinics in one part of the state shouldn&rsquo;t mean that clinics in another area should be free from the law, Justice Samuel Alito argued. &ldquo;The possibility that the admitting privileges requirement might have caused a closure in Lubbock is no reason to issue a facial injunction exempting Houston clinics from that requirement,&rdquo; he stated. Justice Clarence Thomas added that the &ldquo;decision perpetuates the Court&rsquo;s habit of applying different rules to different constitutional rights - especially the putative right to abortion.&rdquo; After the Court&rsquo;s ruling, Texas attorney general Ken Paxton defended the Texas law, saying it &ldquo;was an effort to improve minimum safety standards and ensure capable care for Texas women.&rdquo; Other Catholics spoke out against the majority opinion. &ldquo;The Catholic Church in Texas, in communion with millions of Catholics across America and the world, will continue its efforts to protect life and human dignity from conception to natural death,&rdquo; the Texas Catholic bishops stated. &ldquo;Surgical abortion is an invasive procedure that poses numerous and serious medical complications,&rdquo; they said. &ldquo;The state has a legitimate interest in ensuring the maximum level of safety for the woman subjected to the procedure and that viable emergency care is available if complications such as hemorrhage, infection, uterine perforation, blood clots, cervical tears, or allergic reactions occur.&rdquo; &nbsp; The Court&rsquo;s opinion in Whole Women&rsquo;s Health v. Hellerstedt is problematic for a number of reasons, legal experts warned. First, the Court continued its trend of having a special preference for protecting abortion rights, Rick Garnett, law professor at the University of Notre Dame, noted, calling it the Court&rsquo;s &ldquo;tendency to bend its own rules in abortion-related cases.&rdquo; There was &ldquo;no language&rdquo; about &ldquo;the government&rsquo;s interest in &lsquo;preserving and promoting fetal life&rsquo;&rdquo; in the decision, said Lucia Silecchia, a law professor at The Catholic University of America. This was expressed in a previous case &ndash; Planned Parenthood v. Casey &ndash; but the Court didn&rsquo;t invoke it in Monday&rsquo;s ruling, she said. &ldquo;To have the Supreme Court address abortion without addressing this interest in any meaningful way is a new low in abortion jurisprudence,&rdquo; she told CNA. That third parties with financial interest brought the case to the Court, and not women directly affected by the law, undermined the argument that the case was about women&rsquo;s rights, Silecchia added. &ldquo;Despite the fact that they dubiously asserted the rights of women, their real interest in this case was not women&rsquo;s health but their own profit,&rdquo; Silecchia said of &ldquo;the abortion industry and abortionists&rdquo; who brought the case. The clinics could have abided by the regulations, she added, but &ldquo;it would cost a substantial amount of money to retrofit facilities or purchase new land.&rdquo; Justice Thomas noted the problem of hearing third parties bring a suit, writing in his dissent that &ldquo;ordinarily, plaintiffs cannot file suits to vindicate the constitutional rights of others.&rdquo; &ldquo;But,&rdquo; he continued, &ldquo;the Court employs a different approach to rights that it favors.&rdquo; Also, &ldquo;the majority disregarded entirely the state&#039;s interest in protecting fetal life and instead second-guessed the state legislature&#039;s judgments about health and safety,&rdquo; Garnett said. That deference to the states shouldn&rsquo;t apply in all cases, but it should have applied in this particular case, Silecchia clarified. The Texas law came after a massive grand jury report on horrific abuses at the Philadelphia clinic of Dr. Kermit Gosnell, which became the subject of national outrage. This and other reports of abuses in abortion clinics &ldquo;should make state legislatures interested in greater regulation, not less,&rdquo; Silecchia said. The majority opinion in the ruling acknowledged Gosnell&rsquo;s behavior at &ldquo;terribly wrong,&rdquo; but added that &ldquo;(d)etermined wrongdoers, already ignoring existing statutes and safety measures, are unlikely to be convinced to adopt safe practices by a new overlay of regulations.&rdquo; This court opinion &ldquo;will make it harder&rdquo; for states to regulate such abuses in the future, Silecchia said. &ldquo;After this opinion, there is no meaningful guidance to states as to how they can protect the health of women post-Hellerstedt.&rdquo; Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, in her concurrence, argued that abortion is now a safe procedure and doesn&rsquo;t merit such regulations posed by the Texas law. &ldquo;Many medical procedures, including childbirth, are far more dangerous to patients, yet are not subject to ambulatory surgical-center or hospital admitting-privileges requirements,&rdquo; she said. However, Silecchia insisted, &ldquo;women deserve higher standards of care, not lower.&rdquo; And yet the ruling will &ldquo;make it harder for states to pass legislation that raises the standards of care that women receive.&rdquo; As to the Court&rsquo;s claim that the previous &ldquo;working arrangement&rdquo; between hospitals and doctors nullified the need for &ldquo;admitting privileges&rdquo; for abortionists, Silecchia said the Court&rsquo;s term &ldquo;is vague and it is hard to tell whether this is a meaningful safeguard.&rdquo; &ldquo;Having a local hospital grant admitting privileges is, at least, a minimal assessment of the physician&#039;s medical competence,&rdquo; she said, adding that an abortionist with an admitting privilege might be &ldquo;more likely to err on the side of transport to a hospital&rdquo; in case of a medical emergency.&rdquo; &nbsp;\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2016\/06\/supreme-court-ruling-blasted-for-pro-abortion-bias-in-texas-ruling\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Supreme Court ruling blasted for pro-abortion bias in Texas ruling\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Washington D.C., Jun 27, 2016 \/ 04:35 pm (CNA\/EWTN News).- In striking down Texas&rsquo; regulations of abortion clinics, the Supreme Court showed favoritism toward the supposed &ldquo;right to abortion&rdquo; over states&rsquo; interests in the health of women and normal court proceedings, critics said Monday. &ldquo;The Court has rejected a common-sense law protecting women from abortion facilities that put profits above patient safety,&rdquo; said Deirdre McQuade, assistant director for pro-life communications at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops&#039; Secretariat of Pro-Life Activities. In a 5-3 vote, the Supreme Court struck down a Texas law that included two key regulations of abortion clinics &ndash; abortionists had to have admitting privileges at a local hospital, and clinics had to meet the standards of ambulatory surgical centers. The court ruled that the law put an &ldquo;undue burden&rdquo; on a women&rsquo;s right to an abortion, saying that it posed a &ldquo;substantial obstacle&rdquo; to that right without showing the necessary benefits of its regulations to women&rsquo;s health. Regarding the admitting privileges requirement, the court majority said there was already a &ldquo;working arrangement&rdquo; in place between hospitals and abortionists. Because of the new requirement, around half the clinics in the state closed, they said, citing &ldquo;sufficient evidence&rdquo; from &ldquo;the record.&rdquo; The court also said that requiring clinics to meet the standards of ambulatory surgical centers, &ldquo;provides few, if any, health benefits for women, poses a substantial obstacle to women seeking abortions, and constitutes an &lsquo;undue burden&rsquo; on their constitutional right to do so.&rdquo; Since clinics closing meant longer waits, longer distances between clinics, and more crowds at each clinic, this all presented an unconstitutional &ldquo;undue burden&rdquo; on a woman&rsquo;s &ldquo;right to abortion,&rdquo; the court said. The dissenting justices sharply disagreed. The closing of clinics in one part of the state shouldn&rsquo;t mean that clinics in another area should be free from the law, Justice Samuel Alito argued. &ldquo;The possibility that the admitting privileges requirement might have caused a closure in Lubbock is no reason to issue a facial injunction exempting Houston clinics from that requirement,&rdquo; he stated. Justice Clarence Thomas added that the &ldquo;decision perpetuates the Court&rsquo;s habit of applying different rules to different constitutional rights - especially the putative right to abortion.&rdquo; After the Court&rsquo;s ruling, Texas attorney general Ken Paxton defended the Texas law, saying it &ldquo;was an effort to improve minimum safety standards and ensure capable care for Texas women.&rdquo; Other Catholics spoke out against the majority opinion. &ldquo;The Catholic Church in Texas, in communion with millions of Catholics across America and the world, will continue its efforts to protect life and human dignity from conception to natural death,&rdquo; the Texas Catholic bishops stated. &ldquo;Surgical abortion is an invasive procedure that poses numerous and serious medical complications,&rdquo; they said. &ldquo;The state has a legitimate interest in ensuring the maximum level of safety for the woman subjected to the procedure and that viable emergency care is available if complications such as hemorrhage, infection, uterine perforation, blood clots, cervical tears, or allergic reactions occur.&rdquo; &nbsp; The Court&rsquo;s opinion in Whole Women&rsquo;s Health v. Hellerstedt is problematic for a number of reasons, legal experts warned. First, the Court continued its trend of having a special preference for protecting abortion rights, Rick Garnett, law professor at the University of Notre Dame, noted, calling it the Court&rsquo;s &ldquo;tendency to bend its own rules in abortion-related cases.&rdquo; There was &ldquo;no language&rdquo; about &ldquo;the government&rsquo;s interest in &lsquo;preserving and promoting fetal life&rsquo;&rdquo; in the decision, said Lucia Silecchia, a law professor at The Catholic University of America. This was expressed in a previous case &ndash; Planned Parenthood v. Casey &ndash; but the Court didn&rsquo;t invoke it in Monday&rsquo;s ruling, she said. &ldquo;To have the Supreme Court address abortion without addressing this interest in any meaningful way is a new low in abortion jurisprudence,&rdquo; she told CNA. That third parties with financial interest brought the case to the Court, and not women directly affected by the law, undermined the argument that the case was about women&rsquo;s rights, Silecchia added. &ldquo;Despite the fact that they dubiously asserted the rights of women, their real interest in this case was not women&rsquo;s health but their own profit,&rdquo; Silecchia said of &ldquo;the abortion industry and abortionists&rdquo; who brought the case. The clinics could have abided by the regulations, she added, but &ldquo;it would cost a substantial amount of money to retrofit facilities or purchase new land.&rdquo; Justice Thomas noted the problem of hearing third parties bring a suit, writing in his dissent that &ldquo;ordinarily, plaintiffs cannot file suits to vindicate the constitutional rights of others.&rdquo; &ldquo;But,&rdquo; he continued, &ldquo;the Court employs a different approach to rights that it favors.&rdquo; Also, &ldquo;the majority disregarded entirely the state&#039;s interest in protecting fetal life and instead second-guessed the state legislature&#039;s judgments about health and safety,&rdquo; Garnett said. That deference to the states shouldn&rsquo;t apply in all cases, but it should have applied in this particular case, Silecchia clarified. The Texas law came after a massive grand jury report on horrific abuses at the Philadelphia clinic of Dr. Kermit Gosnell, which became the subject of national outrage. This and other reports of abuses in abortion clinics &ldquo;should make state legislatures interested in greater regulation, not less,&rdquo; Silecchia said. The majority opinion in the ruling acknowledged Gosnell&rsquo;s behavior at &ldquo;terribly wrong,&rdquo; but added that &ldquo;(d)etermined wrongdoers, already ignoring existing statutes and safety measures, are unlikely to be convinced to adopt safe practices by a new overlay of regulations.&rdquo; This court opinion &ldquo;will make it harder&rdquo; for states to regulate such abuses in the future, Silecchia said. &ldquo;After this opinion, there is no meaningful guidance to states as to how they can protect the health of women post-Hellerstedt.&rdquo; Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, in her concurrence, argued that abortion is now a safe procedure and doesn&rsquo;t merit such regulations posed by the Texas law. &ldquo;Many medical procedures, including childbirth, are far more dangerous to patients, yet are not subject to ambulatory surgical-center or hospital admitting-privileges requirements,&rdquo; she said. However, Silecchia insisted, &ldquo;women deserve higher standards of care, not lower.&rdquo; And yet the ruling will &ldquo;make it harder for states to pass legislation that raises the standards of care that women receive.&rdquo; As to the Court&rsquo;s claim that the previous &ldquo;working arrangement&rdquo; between hospitals and doctors nullified the need for &ldquo;admitting privileges&rdquo; for abortionists, Silecchia said the Court&rsquo;s term &ldquo;is vague and it is hard to tell whether this is a meaningful safeguard.&rdquo; &ldquo;Having a local hospital grant admitting privileges is, at least, a minimal assessment of the physician&#039;s medical competence,&rdquo; she said, adding that an abortionist with an admitting privilege might be &ldquo;more likely to err on the side of transport to a hospital&rdquo; in case of a medical emergency.&rdquo; &nbsp;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2016\/06\/supreme-court-ruling-blasted-for-pro-abortion-bias-in-texas-ruling\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Catholic News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-06-27T22:35:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/images\/size340\/2015_March_for_Life_in_Washington_DC_on_Jan_22_2015_Credit_Addie_Mena_CNA_2_CNA_1_22_15.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"CNA Daily News\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"CNA Daily News\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2016\/06\/supreme-court-ruling-blasted-for-pro-abortion-bias-in-texas-ruling\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2016\/06\/supreme-court-ruling-blasted-for-pro-abortion-bias-in-texas-ruling\/\",\"name\":\"Supreme Court ruling blasted for pro-abortion bias in Texas ruling\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-06-27T22:35:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-06-27T22:35:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#\/schema\/person\/35d4bd7addc580050842c844a11575f1\"},\"description\":\"Washington D.C., Jun 27, 2016 \/ 04:35 pm (CNA\/EWTN News).- In striking down Texas&rsquo; regulations of abortion clinics, the Supreme Court showed favoritism toward the supposed &ldquo;right to abortion&rdquo; over states&rsquo; interests in the health of women and normal court proceedings, critics said Monday. &ldquo;The Court has rejected a common-sense law protecting women from abortion facilities that put profits above patient safety,&rdquo; said Deirdre McQuade, assistant director for pro-life communications at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Secretariat of Pro-Life Activities. In a 5-3 vote, the Supreme Court struck down a Texas law that included two key regulations of abortion clinics &ndash; abortionists had to have admitting privileges at a local hospital, and clinics had to meet the standards of ambulatory surgical centers. The court ruled that the law put an &ldquo;undue burden&rdquo; on a women&rsquo;s right to an abortion, saying that it posed a &ldquo;substantial obstacle&rdquo; to that right without showing the necessary benefits of its regulations to women&rsquo;s health. Regarding the admitting privileges requirement, the court majority said there was already a &ldquo;working arrangement&rdquo; in place between hospitals and abortionists. Because of the new requirement, around half the clinics in the state closed, they said, citing &ldquo;sufficient evidence&rdquo; from &ldquo;the record.&rdquo; The court also said that requiring clinics to meet the standards of ambulatory surgical centers, &ldquo;provides few, if any, health benefits for women, poses a substantial obstacle to women seeking abortions, and constitutes an &lsquo;undue burden&rsquo; on their constitutional right to do so.&rdquo; Since clinics closing meant longer waits, longer distances between clinics, and more crowds at each clinic, this all presented an unconstitutional &ldquo;undue burden&rdquo; on a woman&rsquo;s &ldquo;right to abortion,&rdquo; the court said. The dissenting justices sharply disagreed. The closing of clinics in one part of the state shouldn&rsquo;t mean that clinics in another area should be free from the law, Justice Samuel Alito argued. &ldquo;The possibility that the admitting privileges requirement might have caused a closure in Lubbock is no reason to issue a facial injunction exempting Houston clinics from that requirement,&rdquo; he stated. Justice Clarence Thomas added that the &ldquo;decision perpetuates the Court&rsquo;s habit of applying different rules to different constitutional rights - especially the putative right to abortion.&rdquo; After the Court&rsquo;s ruling, Texas attorney general Ken Paxton defended the Texas law, saying it &ldquo;was an effort to improve minimum safety standards and ensure capable care for Texas women.&rdquo; Other Catholics spoke out against the majority opinion. &ldquo;The Catholic Church in Texas, in communion with millions of Catholics across America and the world, will continue its efforts to protect life and human dignity from conception to natural death,&rdquo; the Texas Catholic bishops stated. &ldquo;Surgical abortion is an invasive procedure that poses numerous and serious medical complications,&rdquo; they said. &ldquo;The state has a legitimate interest in ensuring the maximum level of safety for the woman subjected to the procedure and that viable emergency care is available if complications such as hemorrhage, infection, uterine perforation, blood clots, cervical tears, or allergic reactions occur.&rdquo; &nbsp; The Court&rsquo;s opinion in Whole Women&rsquo;s Health v. Hellerstedt is problematic for a number of reasons, legal experts warned. First, the Court continued its trend of having a special preference for protecting abortion rights, Rick Garnett, law professor at the University of Notre Dame, noted, calling it the Court&rsquo;s &ldquo;tendency to bend its own rules in abortion-related cases.&rdquo; There was &ldquo;no language&rdquo; about &ldquo;the government&rsquo;s interest in &lsquo;preserving and promoting fetal life&rsquo;&rdquo; in the decision, said Lucia Silecchia, a law professor at The Catholic University of America. This was expressed in a previous case &ndash; Planned Parenthood v. Casey &ndash; but the Court didn&rsquo;t invoke it in Monday&rsquo;s ruling, she said. &ldquo;To have the Supreme Court address abortion without addressing this interest in any meaningful way is a new low in abortion jurisprudence,&rdquo; she told CNA. That third parties with financial interest brought the case to the Court, and not women directly affected by the law, undermined the argument that the case was about women&rsquo;s rights, Silecchia added. &ldquo;Despite the fact that they dubiously asserted the rights of women, their real interest in this case was not women&rsquo;s health but their own profit,&rdquo; Silecchia said of &ldquo;the abortion industry and abortionists&rdquo; who brought the case. The clinics could have abided by the regulations, she added, but &ldquo;it would cost a substantial amount of money to retrofit facilities or purchase new land.&rdquo; Justice Thomas noted the problem of hearing third parties bring a suit, writing in his dissent that &ldquo;ordinarily, plaintiffs cannot file suits to vindicate the constitutional rights of others.&rdquo; &ldquo;But,&rdquo; he continued, &ldquo;the Court employs a different approach to rights that it favors.&rdquo; Also, &ldquo;the majority disregarded entirely the state's interest in protecting fetal life and instead second-guessed the state legislature's judgments about health and safety,&rdquo; Garnett said. That deference to the states shouldn&rsquo;t apply in all cases, but it should have applied in this particular case, Silecchia clarified. The Texas law came after a massive grand jury report on horrific abuses at the Philadelphia clinic of Dr. Kermit Gosnell, which became the subject of national outrage. This and other reports of abuses in abortion clinics &ldquo;should make state legislatures interested in greater regulation, not less,&rdquo; Silecchia said. The majority opinion in the ruling acknowledged Gosnell&rsquo;s behavior at &ldquo;terribly wrong,&rdquo; but added that &ldquo;(d)etermined wrongdoers, already ignoring existing statutes and safety measures, are unlikely to be convinced to adopt safe practices by a new overlay of regulations.&rdquo; This court opinion &ldquo;will make it harder&rdquo; for states to regulate such abuses in the future, Silecchia said. &ldquo;After this opinion, there is no meaningful guidance to states as to how they can protect the health of women post-Hellerstedt.&rdquo; Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, in her concurrence, argued that abortion is now a safe procedure and doesn&rsquo;t merit such regulations posed by the Texas law. &ldquo;Many medical procedures, including childbirth, are far more dangerous to patients, yet are not subject to ambulatory surgical-center or hospital admitting-privileges requirements,&rdquo; she said. However, Silecchia insisted, &ldquo;women deserve higher standards of care, not lower.&rdquo; And yet the ruling will &ldquo;make it harder for states to pass legislation that raises the standards of care that women receive.&rdquo; As to the Court&rsquo;s claim that the previous &ldquo;working arrangement&rdquo; between hospitals and doctors nullified the need for &ldquo;admitting privileges&rdquo; for abortionists, Silecchia said the Court&rsquo;s term &ldquo;is vague and it is hard to tell whether this is a meaningful safeguard.&rdquo; &ldquo;Having a local hospital grant admitting privileges is, at least, a minimal assessment of the physician's medical competence,&rdquo; she said, adding that an abortionist with an admitting privilege might be &ldquo;more likely to err on the side of transport to a hospital&rdquo; in case of a medical emergency.&rdquo; &nbsp;\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2016\/06\/supreme-court-ruling-blasted-for-pro-abortion-bias-in-texas-ruling\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2016\/06\/supreme-court-ruling-blasted-for-pro-abortion-bias-in-texas-ruling\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2016\/06\/supreme-court-ruling-blasted-for-pro-abortion-bias-in-texas-ruling\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Supreme Court ruling blasted for pro-abortion bias in Texas ruling\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/\",\"name\":\"Catholic News\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#\/schema\/person\/35d4bd7addc580050842c844a11575f1\",\"name\":\"CNA Daily News\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8f1180c7dca7995d4a997aac72a3a88a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8f1180c7dca7995d4a997aac72a3a88a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"CNA Daily News\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/author\/cna-daily-news\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Supreme Court ruling blasted for pro-abortion bias in Texas ruling","description":"Washington D.C., Jun 27, 2016 \/ 04:35 pm (CNA\/EWTN News).- In striking down Texas&rsquo; regulations of abortion clinics, the Supreme Court showed favoritism toward the supposed &ldquo;right to abortion&rdquo; over states&rsquo; interests in the health of women and normal court proceedings, critics said Monday. &ldquo;The Court has rejected a common-sense law protecting women from abortion facilities that put profits above patient safety,&rdquo; said Deirdre McQuade, assistant director for pro-life communications at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Secretariat of Pro-Life Activities. In a 5-3 vote, the Supreme Court struck down a Texas law that included two key regulations of abortion clinics &ndash; abortionists had to have admitting privileges at a local hospital, and clinics had to meet the standards of ambulatory surgical centers. The court ruled that the law put an &ldquo;undue burden&rdquo; on a women&rsquo;s right to an abortion, saying that it posed a &ldquo;substantial obstacle&rdquo; to that right without showing the necessary benefits of its regulations to women&rsquo;s health. Regarding the admitting privileges requirement, the court majority said there was already a &ldquo;working arrangement&rdquo; in place between hospitals and abortionists. Because of the new requirement, around half the clinics in the state closed, they said, citing &ldquo;sufficient evidence&rdquo; from &ldquo;the record.&rdquo; The court also said that requiring clinics to meet the standards of ambulatory surgical centers, &ldquo;provides few, if any, health benefits for women, poses a substantial obstacle to women seeking abortions, and constitutes an &lsquo;undue burden&rsquo; on their constitutional right to do so.&rdquo; Since clinics closing meant longer waits, longer distances between clinics, and more crowds at each clinic, this all presented an unconstitutional &ldquo;undue burden&rdquo; on a woman&rsquo;s &ldquo;right to abortion,&rdquo; the court said. The dissenting justices sharply disagreed. The closing of clinics in one part of the state shouldn&rsquo;t mean that clinics in another area should be free from the law, Justice Samuel Alito argued. &ldquo;The possibility that the admitting privileges requirement might have caused a closure in Lubbock is no reason to issue a facial injunction exempting Houston clinics from that requirement,&rdquo; he stated. Justice Clarence Thomas added that the &ldquo;decision perpetuates the Court&rsquo;s habit of applying different rules to different constitutional rights - especially the putative right to abortion.&rdquo; After the Court&rsquo;s ruling, Texas attorney general Ken Paxton defended the Texas law, saying it &ldquo;was an effort to improve minimum safety standards and ensure capable care for Texas women.&rdquo; Other Catholics spoke out against the majority opinion. &ldquo;The Catholic Church in Texas, in communion with millions of Catholics across America and the world, will continue its efforts to protect life and human dignity from conception to natural death,&rdquo; the Texas Catholic bishops stated. &ldquo;Surgical abortion is an invasive procedure that poses numerous and serious medical complications,&rdquo; they said. &ldquo;The state has a legitimate interest in ensuring the maximum level of safety for the woman subjected to the procedure and that viable emergency care is available if complications such as hemorrhage, infection, uterine perforation, blood clots, cervical tears, or allergic reactions occur.&rdquo; &nbsp; The Court&rsquo;s opinion in Whole Women&rsquo;s Health v. Hellerstedt is problematic for a number of reasons, legal experts warned. First, the Court continued its trend of having a special preference for protecting abortion rights, Rick Garnett, law professor at the University of Notre Dame, noted, calling it the Court&rsquo;s &ldquo;tendency to bend its own rules in abortion-related cases.&rdquo; There was &ldquo;no language&rdquo; about &ldquo;the government&rsquo;s interest in &lsquo;preserving and promoting fetal life&rsquo;&rdquo; in the decision, said Lucia Silecchia, a law professor at The Catholic University of America. This was expressed in a previous case &ndash; Planned Parenthood v. Casey &ndash; but the Court didn&rsquo;t invoke it in Monday&rsquo;s ruling, she said. &ldquo;To have the Supreme Court address abortion without addressing this interest in any meaningful way is a new low in abortion jurisprudence,&rdquo; she told CNA. That third parties with financial interest brought the case to the Court, and not women directly affected by the law, undermined the argument that the case was about women&rsquo;s rights, Silecchia added. &ldquo;Despite the fact that they dubiously asserted the rights of women, their real interest in this case was not women&rsquo;s health but their own profit,&rdquo; Silecchia said of &ldquo;the abortion industry and abortionists&rdquo; who brought the case. The clinics could have abided by the regulations, she added, but &ldquo;it would cost a substantial amount of money to retrofit facilities or purchase new land.&rdquo; Justice Thomas noted the problem of hearing third parties bring a suit, writing in his dissent that &ldquo;ordinarily, plaintiffs cannot file suits to vindicate the constitutional rights of others.&rdquo; &ldquo;But,&rdquo; he continued, &ldquo;the Court employs a different approach to rights that it favors.&rdquo; Also, &ldquo;the majority disregarded entirely the state's interest in protecting fetal life and instead second-guessed the state legislature's judgments about health and safety,&rdquo; Garnett said. That deference to the states shouldn&rsquo;t apply in all cases, but it should have applied in this particular case, Silecchia clarified. The Texas law came after a massive grand jury report on horrific abuses at the Philadelphia clinic of Dr. Kermit Gosnell, which became the subject of national outrage. This and other reports of abuses in abortion clinics &ldquo;should make state legislatures interested in greater regulation, not less,&rdquo; Silecchia said. The majority opinion in the ruling acknowledged Gosnell&rsquo;s behavior at &ldquo;terribly wrong,&rdquo; but added that &ldquo;(d)etermined wrongdoers, already ignoring existing statutes and safety measures, are unlikely to be convinced to adopt safe practices by a new overlay of regulations.&rdquo; This court opinion &ldquo;will make it harder&rdquo; for states to regulate such abuses in the future, Silecchia said. &ldquo;After this opinion, there is no meaningful guidance to states as to how they can protect the health of women post-Hellerstedt.&rdquo; Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, in her concurrence, argued that abortion is now a safe procedure and doesn&rsquo;t merit such regulations posed by the Texas law. &ldquo;Many medical procedures, including childbirth, are far more dangerous to patients, yet are not subject to ambulatory surgical-center or hospital admitting-privileges requirements,&rdquo; she said. However, Silecchia insisted, &ldquo;women deserve higher standards of care, not lower.&rdquo; And yet the ruling will &ldquo;make it harder for states to pass legislation that raises the standards of care that women receive.&rdquo; As to the Court&rsquo;s claim that the previous &ldquo;working arrangement&rdquo; between hospitals and doctors nullified the need for &ldquo;admitting privileges&rdquo; for abortionists, Silecchia said the Court&rsquo;s term &ldquo;is vague and it is hard to tell whether this is a meaningful safeguard.&rdquo; &ldquo;Having a local hospital grant admitting privileges is, at least, a minimal assessment of the physician's medical competence,&rdquo; she said, adding that an abortionist with an admitting privilege might be &ldquo;more likely to err on the side of transport to a hospital&rdquo; in case of a medical emergency.&rdquo; &nbsp;","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2016\/06\/supreme-court-ruling-blasted-for-pro-abortion-bias-in-texas-ruling\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Supreme Court ruling blasted for pro-abortion bias in Texas ruling","og_description":"Washington D.C., Jun 27, 2016 \/ 04:35 pm (CNA\/EWTN News).- In striking down Texas&rsquo; regulations of abortion clinics, the Supreme Court showed favoritism toward the supposed &ldquo;right to abortion&rdquo; over states&rsquo; interests in the health of women and normal court proceedings, critics said Monday. &ldquo;The Court has rejected a common-sense law protecting women from abortion facilities that put profits above patient safety,&rdquo; said Deirdre McQuade, assistant director for pro-life communications at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Secretariat of Pro-Life Activities. In a 5-3 vote, the Supreme Court struck down a Texas law that included two key regulations of abortion clinics &ndash; abortionists had to have admitting privileges at a local hospital, and clinics had to meet the standards of ambulatory surgical centers. The court ruled that the law put an &ldquo;undue burden&rdquo; on a women&rsquo;s right to an abortion, saying that it posed a &ldquo;substantial obstacle&rdquo; to that right without showing the necessary benefits of its regulations to women&rsquo;s health. Regarding the admitting privileges requirement, the court majority said there was already a &ldquo;working arrangement&rdquo; in place between hospitals and abortionists. Because of the new requirement, around half the clinics in the state closed, they said, citing &ldquo;sufficient evidence&rdquo; from &ldquo;the record.&rdquo; The court also said that requiring clinics to meet the standards of ambulatory surgical centers, &ldquo;provides few, if any, health benefits for women, poses a substantial obstacle to women seeking abortions, and constitutes an &lsquo;undue burden&rsquo; on their constitutional right to do so.&rdquo; Since clinics closing meant longer waits, longer distances between clinics, and more crowds at each clinic, this all presented an unconstitutional &ldquo;undue burden&rdquo; on a woman&rsquo;s &ldquo;right to abortion,&rdquo; the court said. The dissenting justices sharply disagreed. The closing of clinics in one part of the state shouldn&rsquo;t mean that clinics in another area should be free from the law, Justice Samuel Alito argued. &ldquo;The possibility that the admitting privileges requirement might have caused a closure in Lubbock is no reason to issue a facial injunction exempting Houston clinics from that requirement,&rdquo; he stated. Justice Clarence Thomas added that the &ldquo;decision perpetuates the Court&rsquo;s habit of applying different rules to different constitutional rights - especially the putative right to abortion.&rdquo; After the Court&rsquo;s ruling, Texas attorney general Ken Paxton defended the Texas law, saying it &ldquo;was an effort to improve minimum safety standards and ensure capable care for Texas women.&rdquo; Other Catholics spoke out against the majority opinion. &ldquo;The Catholic Church in Texas, in communion with millions of Catholics across America and the world, will continue its efforts to protect life and human dignity from conception to natural death,&rdquo; the Texas Catholic bishops stated. &ldquo;Surgical abortion is an invasive procedure that poses numerous and serious medical complications,&rdquo; they said. &ldquo;The state has a legitimate interest in ensuring the maximum level of safety for the woman subjected to the procedure and that viable emergency care is available if complications such as hemorrhage, infection, uterine perforation, blood clots, cervical tears, or allergic reactions occur.&rdquo; &nbsp; The Court&rsquo;s opinion in Whole Women&rsquo;s Health v. Hellerstedt is problematic for a number of reasons, legal experts warned. First, the Court continued its trend of having a special preference for protecting abortion rights, Rick Garnett, law professor at the University of Notre Dame, noted, calling it the Court&rsquo;s &ldquo;tendency to bend its own rules in abortion-related cases.&rdquo; There was &ldquo;no language&rdquo; about &ldquo;the government&rsquo;s interest in &lsquo;preserving and promoting fetal life&rsquo;&rdquo; in the decision, said Lucia Silecchia, a law professor at The Catholic University of America. This was expressed in a previous case &ndash; Planned Parenthood v. Casey &ndash; but the Court didn&rsquo;t invoke it in Monday&rsquo;s ruling, she said. &ldquo;To have the Supreme Court address abortion without addressing this interest in any meaningful way is a new low in abortion jurisprudence,&rdquo; she told CNA. That third parties with financial interest brought the case to the Court, and not women directly affected by the law, undermined the argument that the case was about women&rsquo;s rights, Silecchia added. &ldquo;Despite the fact that they dubiously asserted the rights of women, their real interest in this case was not women&rsquo;s health but their own profit,&rdquo; Silecchia said of &ldquo;the abortion industry and abortionists&rdquo; who brought the case. The clinics could have abided by the regulations, she added, but &ldquo;it would cost a substantial amount of money to retrofit facilities or purchase new land.&rdquo; Justice Thomas noted the problem of hearing third parties bring a suit, writing in his dissent that &ldquo;ordinarily, plaintiffs cannot file suits to vindicate the constitutional rights of others.&rdquo; &ldquo;But,&rdquo; he continued, &ldquo;the Court employs a different approach to rights that it favors.&rdquo; Also, &ldquo;the majority disregarded entirely the state's interest in protecting fetal life and instead second-guessed the state legislature's judgments about health and safety,&rdquo; Garnett said. That deference to the states shouldn&rsquo;t apply in all cases, but it should have applied in this particular case, Silecchia clarified. The Texas law came after a massive grand jury report on horrific abuses at the Philadelphia clinic of Dr. Kermit Gosnell, which became the subject of national outrage. This and other reports of abuses in abortion clinics &ldquo;should make state legislatures interested in greater regulation, not less,&rdquo; Silecchia said. The majority opinion in the ruling acknowledged Gosnell&rsquo;s behavior at &ldquo;terribly wrong,&rdquo; but added that &ldquo;(d)etermined wrongdoers, already ignoring existing statutes and safety measures, are unlikely to be convinced to adopt safe practices by a new overlay of regulations.&rdquo; This court opinion &ldquo;will make it harder&rdquo; for states to regulate such abuses in the future, Silecchia said. &ldquo;After this opinion, there is no meaningful guidance to states as to how they can protect the health of women post-Hellerstedt.&rdquo; Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, in her concurrence, argued that abortion is now a safe procedure and doesn&rsquo;t merit such regulations posed by the Texas law. &ldquo;Many medical procedures, including childbirth, are far more dangerous to patients, yet are not subject to ambulatory surgical-center or hospital admitting-privileges requirements,&rdquo; she said. However, Silecchia insisted, &ldquo;women deserve higher standards of care, not lower.&rdquo; And yet the ruling will &ldquo;make it harder for states to pass legislation that raises the standards of care that women receive.&rdquo; As to the Court&rsquo;s claim that the previous &ldquo;working arrangement&rdquo; between hospitals and doctors nullified the need for &ldquo;admitting privileges&rdquo; for abortionists, Silecchia said the Court&rsquo;s term &ldquo;is vague and it is hard to tell whether this is a meaningful safeguard.&rdquo; &ldquo;Having a local hospital grant admitting privileges is, at least, a minimal assessment of the physician's medical competence,&rdquo; she said, adding that an abortionist with an admitting privilege might be &ldquo;more likely to err on the side of transport to a hospital&rdquo; in case of a medical emergency.&rdquo; &nbsp;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2016\/06\/supreme-court-ruling-blasted-for-pro-abortion-bias-in-texas-ruling\/","og_site_name":"Catholic News","article_published_time":"2016-06-27T22:35:00+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/images\/size340\/2015_March_for_Life_in_Washington_DC_on_Jan_22_2015_Credit_Addie_Mena_CNA_2_CNA_1_22_15.jpg"}],"author":"CNA Daily News","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"CNA Daily News","Est. reading time":"6 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2016\/06\/supreme-court-ruling-blasted-for-pro-abortion-bias-in-texas-ruling\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2016\/06\/supreme-court-ruling-blasted-for-pro-abortion-bias-in-texas-ruling\/","name":"Supreme Court ruling blasted for pro-abortion bias in Texas ruling","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#website"},"datePublished":"2016-06-27T22:35:00+00:00","dateModified":"2016-06-27T22:35:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#\/schema\/person\/35d4bd7addc580050842c844a11575f1"},"description":"Washington D.C., Jun 27, 2016 \/ 04:35 pm (CNA\/EWTN News).- In striking down Texas&rsquo; regulations of abortion clinics, the Supreme Court showed favoritism toward the supposed &ldquo;right to abortion&rdquo; over states&rsquo; interests in the health of women and normal court proceedings, critics said Monday. &ldquo;The Court has rejected a common-sense law protecting women from abortion facilities that put profits above patient safety,&rdquo; said Deirdre McQuade, assistant director for pro-life communications at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Secretariat of Pro-Life Activities. In a 5-3 vote, the Supreme Court struck down a Texas law that included two key regulations of abortion clinics &ndash; abortionists had to have admitting privileges at a local hospital, and clinics had to meet the standards of ambulatory surgical centers. The court ruled that the law put an &ldquo;undue burden&rdquo; on a women&rsquo;s right to an abortion, saying that it posed a &ldquo;substantial obstacle&rdquo; to that right without showing the necessary benefits of its regulations to women&rsquo;s health. Regarding the admitting privileges requirement, the court majority said there was already a &ldquo;working arrangement&rdquo; in place between hospitals and abortionists. Because of the new requirement, around half the clinics in the state closed, they said, citing &ldquo;sufficient evidence&rdquo; from &ldquo;the record.&rdquo; The court also said that requiring clinics to meet the standards of ambulatory surgical centers, &ldquo;provides few, if any, health benefits for women, poses a substantial obstacle to women seeking abortions, and constitutes an &lsquo;undue burden&rsquo; on their constitutional right to do so.&rdquo; Since clinics closing meant longer waits, longer distances between clinics, and more crowds at each clinic, this all presented an unconstitutional &ldquo;undue burden&rdquo; on a woman&rsquo;s &ldquo;right to abortion,&rdquo; the court said. The dissenting justices sharply disagreed. The closing of clinics in one part of the state shouldn&rsquo;t mean that clinics in another area should be free from the law, Justice Samuel Alito argued. &ldquo;The possibility that the admitting privileges requirement might have caused a closure in Lubbock is no reason to issue a facial injunction exempting Houston clinics from that requirement,&rdquo; he stated. Justice Clarence Thomas added that the &ldquo;decision perpetuates the Court&rsquo;s habit of applying different rules to different constitutional rights - especially the putative right to abortion.&rdquo; After the Court&rsquo;s ruling, Texas attorney general Ken Paxton defended the Texas law, saying it &ldquo;was an effort to improve minimum safety standards and ensure capable care for Texas women.&rdquo; Other Catholics spoke out against the majority opinion. &ldquo;The Catholic Church in Texas, in communion with millions of Catholics across America and the world, will continue its efforts to protect life and human dignity from conception to natural death,&rdquo; the Texas Catholic bishops stated. &ldquo;Surgical abortion is an invasive procedure that poses numerous and serious medical complications,&rdquo; they said. &ldquo;The state has a legitimate interest in ensuring the maximum level of safety for the woman subjected to the procedure and that viable emergency care is available if complications such as hemorrhage, infection, uterine perforation, blood clots, cervical tears, or allergic reactions occur.&rdquo; &nbsp; The Court&rsquo;s opinion in Whole Women&rsquo;s Health v. Hellerstedt is problematic for a number of reasons, legal experts warned. First, the Court continued its trend of having a special preference for protecting abortion rights, Rick Garnett, law professor at the University of Notre Dame, noted, calling it the Court&rsquo;s &ldquo;tendency to bend its own rules in abortion-related cases.&rdquo; There was &ldquo;no language&rdquo; about &ldquo;the government&rsquo;s interest in &lsquo;preserving and promoting fetal life&rsquo;&rdquo; in the decision, said Lucia Silecchia, a law professor at The Catholic University of America. This was expressed in a previous case &ndash; Planned Parenthood v. Casey &ndash; but the Court didn&rsquo;t invoke it in Monday&rsquo;s ruling, she said. &ldquo;To have the Supreme Court address abortion without addressing this interest in any meaningful way is a new low in abortion jurisprudence,&rdquo; she told CNA. That third parties with financial interest brought the case to the Court, and not women directly affected by the law, undermined the argument that the case was about women&rsquo;s rights, Silecchia added. &ldquo;Despite the fact that they dubiously asserted the rights of women, their real interest in this case was not women&rsquo;s health but their own profit,&rdquo; Silecchia said of &ldquo;the abortion industry and abortionists&rdquo; who brought the case. The clinics could have abided by the regulations, she added, but &ldquo;it would cost a substantial amount of money to retrofit facilities or purchase new land.&rdquo; Justice Thomas noted the problem of hearing third parties bring a suit, writing in his dissent that &ldquo;ordinarily, plaintiffs cannot file suits to vindicate the constitutional rights of others.&rdquo; &ldquo;But,&rdquo; he continued, &ldquo;the Court employs a different approach to rights that it favors.&rdquo; Also, &ldquo;the majority disregarded entirely the state's interest in protecting fetal life and instead second-guessed the state legislature's judgments about health and safety,&rdquo; Garnett said. That deference to the states shouldn&rsquo;t apply in all cases, but it should have applied in this particular case, Silecchia clarified. The Texas law came after a massive grand jury report on horrific abuses at the Philadelphia clinic of Dr. Kermit Gosnell, which became the subject of national outrage. This and other reports of abuses in abortion clinics &ldquo;should make state legislatures interested in greater regulation, not less,&rdquo; Silecchia said. The majority opinion in the ruling acknowledged Gosnell&rsquo;s behavior at &ldquo;terribly wrong,&rdquo; but added that &ldquo;(d)etermined wrongdoers, already ignoring existing statutes and safety measures, are unlikely to be convinced to adopt safe practices by a new overlay of regulations.&rdquo; This court opinion &ldquo;will make it harder&rdquo; for states to regulate such abuses in the future, Silecchia said. &ldquo;After this opinion, there is no meaningful guidance to states as to how they can protect the health of women post-Hellerstedt.&rdquo; Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, in her concurrence, argued that abortion is now a safe procedure and doesn&rsquo;t merit such regulations posed by the Texas law. &ldquo;Many medical procedures, including childbirth, are far more dangerous to patients, yet are not subject to ambulatory surgical-center or hospital admitting-privileges requirements,&rdquo; she said. However, Silecchia insisted, &ldquo;women deserve higher standards of care, not lower.&rdquo; And yet the ruling will &ldquo;make it harder for states to pass legislation that raises the standards of care that women receive.&rdquo; As to the Court&rsquo;s claim that the previous &ldquo;working arrangement&rdquo; between hospitals and doctors nullified the need for &ldquo;admitting privileges&rdquo; for abortionists, Silecchia said the Court&rsquo;s term &ldquo;is vague and it is hard to tell whether this is a meaningful safeguard.&rdquo; &ldquo;Having a local hospital grant admitting privileges is, at least, a minimal assessment of the physician's medical competence,&rdquo; she said, adding that an abortionist with an admitting privilege might be &ldquo;more likely to err on the side of transport to a hospital&rdquo; in case of a medical emergency.&rdquo; &nbsp;","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2016\/06\/supreme-court-ruling-blasted-for-pro-abortion-bias-in-texas-ruling\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2016\/06\/supreme-court-ruling-blasted-for-pro-abortion-bias-in-texas-ruling\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2016\/06\/supreme-court-ruling-blasted-for-pro-abortion-bias-in-texas-ruling\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Supreme Court ruling blasted for pro-abortion bias in Texas ruling"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/","name":"Catholic News","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#\/schema\/person\/35d4bd7addc580050842c844a11575f1","name":"CNA Daily News","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8f1180c7dca7995d4a997aac72a3a88a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8f1180c7dca7995d4a997aac72a3a88a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"CNA Daily News"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/author\/cna-daily-news\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1031"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14800"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14800\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}