Washington, DC — Late yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a terse, unsigned statement, that parts of the Texas abortion facility safety standard law could not be enforced. This will allow the 14 abortion clinics To reopen that closed earlier this month by a decision of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.
The ruling noted that Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Anton Scalia would have allowed the law to be enforced.
In addition to blocking the requirement that abortion clinics must meet Ambulatory Surgical Center standards, it also waived hospital privilege requirements for abortionists at clinics in El Paso and McAllen, but left that requirement in place elsewhere in the state.
“This decision by the Supreme Court places the profits of abortion businesses that cannot meet minimum safety standards above the lives of women,” said Troy Newman, president of Operation Rescue. “We have seen first-hand through our investigations in Texas the conditions and practices that endanger women every day. We take some hope in the fact that this ruling is only temporary. We remain confident that the Texas law will be upheld once all the evidence is presented.”
Operation Rescue discovered that nearly 1,000 Texas women were being hospitalized each year in Texas prior to the passage of the clinic safety law, HB2. This was in sharp contrast to the false claims of safety put forth by the abortion facilities that sued to block the law.
“I doubt very much if Chief Justice Roberts, who allowed these abortion centers to reopen, would want a blind surgical procedure done on him or his family members in a facility that could not meet minimum standards by a doctor who could not qualify for hospital privileges. Yet, that is exactly what he is asking Texas women to do,” said Newman. “We also discovered that once the abortion clinics closed, there was very little delay in scheduling abortions, contrary to what the abortion businesses say. In some cases, they offered abortions the next day, so the argument that closing abortion facilities created an ‘undue burden’ is completely false.”
Operation Rescue discovered numerous violations at Texas abortion facilities during a 2011 investigation. As a result, fines were imposed on two abortionists and two Whole Women’s Health clinics where aborted baby remains had been illegally dumped.
Last year, Operation Rescue released shocking evidence proved by former employees of Houston abortionist Douglas Karpan that indicated late term babies were being born alive during abortions and intentionally killed.
