Planned Parenthood Will Try to Overturn Pro-Life Laws Nationwide After Supreme Court Ruling

National   |   Micaiah Bilger   |   Jun 30, 2016   |   6:59PM   |   Washington, DC

Planned Parenthood is wasting no time attacking state abortion clinic regulations across the nation after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a Texas abortion law on Monday.

Encouraged by the pro-abortion ruling, the abortion business announced plans Thursday to challenge more abortion regulations in eight states: Arizona, Florida, Michigan, Missouri, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia.

Dawn Laguens, executive vice president of the abortion giant, issued a gloating statement: “I’m proud to announce that today, in eight states, lawmakers and Planned Parenthood affiliates are launching a campaign to repeal these restrictive laws. And many more states will follow in the coming weeks.

“We will fight back state by state and law by law … No matter how long it takes, these laws will fall,” she continued.

On Monday, the Supreme Court reversed part of a pro-life Texas law that protected women’s health, saved the lives of thousands of unborn children and closed abortion clinics that could not ensure adequate health and safety protections for women.

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At issue in the ruling were two provisions: that abortion clinics meet the same building standards as ambulatory surgical centers and that abortionists have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital for situations of medical emergencies.

Texas and many other states passed the regulations based on recommendations from the grand jury in the horrific Kermit Gosnell abortion case in Philadelphia.

Gosnell’s abortion facility was labeled a “house of horrors” after state inspectors found gruesome, unsanitary conditions, injured patients and the remains of late-term babies who were born alive and then killed with scissors. Gosnell later was convicted of murdering three newborn babies, contributing to a female patient’s death and committing hundreds of other crimes.

Prosecutors in the case said Gosnell got away with his crimes for decades because of the lack of government oversight of abortion clinics. According to authorities investigating the case, hair and nail salons were subject to greater scrutiny than abortion clinics in Pennsylvania. Even some politicians who identify as pro-choice supported the regulations to protect women and babies from such atrocities.

But the U.S. Supreme Court sided with abortion activists on Monday, claiming the regulations impose an “undue burden” on women’s access to abortion.

Carol Tobias, president of the National Right to Life Committee, told the Washington Post that she was not surprised to hear Planned Parenthood’s plan to challenge more abortion laws.

“They’ve decided the Supreme Court decision is going to give them the leeway to strike down a lot of laws, but I don’t see that happening,” she said, adding that it doesn’t mean a blank check “to get rid of everything.”

Americans United for Life’s Acting President and Senior Counsel Clarke Forsythe also responded to the news, saying the Supreme Court decision will drive down medical standards in abortion facilities across the U.S.

“Unlike any other area of American medicine, the abortion industry wants to self regulate, asking women to trust by never verify,” Forsythe said in reaction to Planned Parenthood’s announcement. “It’s clear that the abortion industry wants the respectability of the medical profession while refusing to uphold the same high medical standards others comply with, always fighting to keep profits high and standards low. Planned Parenthood consistently will invest in lawyers but not in the health and safety of women.”

Maria Gallagher, legislative director of the Pennsylvania Pro-Life Federation, an affiliate of National Right to Life, told LifeNews that her state saw the dire need abortion clinic regulations after witnessing the massive tragedy that took place at Gosnell’s Philadelphia abortion center.

“The law has not posed an undue burden to women—rather, it has provided them with a layer of protection that was previously missing in a state that turned a blind eye toward Gosnell’s egregious conduct,” Gallagher said. “For more than 15 years, abortion centers in Pennsylvania went uninspected. Now, regular, unannounced inspections are a matter of law, thereby safeguarding the health and safety of women in the Commonwealth.”

The abortion giant did not specify which laws it plans to target in the eight states, but abortion facility regulations seem their likely target. In Pennsylvania, a Planned Parenthood-endorsed legislator already announced plans to file a bill to repeal the abortion clinic regulations.

“Today’s abortion clinics are the true ‘back alleys’ of abortion mythology. They consistently operate in the ‘red light district’ of American medicine where the problem of substandard abortion providers is longstanding and pervasive.  The fight against this public health crisis will continue, despite today’s ruling,” Americans United for Life concluded.

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