For the previous two years, I had been flying to the South from Chicago to provide care to women whose access to abortion services was limited to a few clinics, despite the fact that abortions are deemed legal by the Supreme Court. These women face harsh life circumstances and incessant hostility, merely for wanting to exercise their rights.
Between 100,000 and 240,000 Texas women between the ages of 18 and 49 have tried to end a pregnancy by themselves, according to a pair of surveys released Tuesday by the Texas Policy Evaluation Project, a University of Texas-based effort aimed at determining the impact of the state’s reproductive policies.
The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case that could further narrow a woman’s right to obtain an abortion.
The dispute, which the justices added to their docket on Friday, is the first abortion challenge the court will hear since 2007. But at stake is a far more consequential precedent, established in 1992 — the last time the court reaffirmed the landmark Roe v. Wade.
The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear a challenge to a Texas law that would leave the state with about 10 abortion clinics, down from more than 40. The court has not heard a major abortion case since 2007, and the new case has the potential to affect millions of women and to revise the constitutional principles governing abortion rights.
Despite a near-universal assumption that the Supreme Court will take up an abortion case in its new term, the general chatter hasn’t included much detail about the specific issue, the stakes or the prospects. This column is an effort to address those questions. The stakes couldn’t be higher, either for women who live in the growing number of states governed by anti-abortion politicians or for the court itself.
“Abortion providers in Texas asked the Supreme Court on Wednesday to reverse an appeals court ruling that would leave the state with 10 abortion clinics, down from more than 40. Should the court agree to hear the case, as appears likely, it could issue its first major abortion ruling since 2007 before its next term ends in June.”
Splitting five to four, the Supreme Court on Monday afternoon temporarily blocked Texas from enforcing two new requirements that abortion clinic operators say will force many of them to close. The order will keep those rules on hold at least until the Court decides whether to rule on their constitutionality. The restrictions had been due to go into effect Wednesday.
Abortion has been a part of women’s lives throughout history. The 1 in 3 Campaign seeks to elevate real stories of people’s experiences with abortion and end the stigma and shame surrounding this very common practice.
Follow this history of abortion throughout time.
Abortion is a common experience: At current rates, about one in three American women will have had an abortion by the time she reaches age 45. Moreover, a broad cross section of U.S. women have abortions.
Get the facts about abortion in your state.
Who are the women who obtain abortions in the United States? Why do they decide to end a pregnancy? What are their social and economic circumstances? This video was created by the Guttmacher Institute, a leading research and policy organization on sexual and reproductive health. Full transcript available: http://gu.tt/T24faI or see fact sheet for data references: http://gu.tt/N3hSWv