Pro-life laws have been proven to save unborn children from abortion. And when the courts strike them down, it has been proven that the abortion industry flourishes.
That is what is happening today in the state of Texas.
After the United States Supreme Court struck down a pro-life law designed to protect women’s health from dangerous abortion clinics the Planned Parenthood abortion business is back in business in Waco Texas.
The abortion corporation closed its abortion clinic in Waco in 2014. But in the wake of the Supreme Court’s striking down a Texas law to require abortion practitioners and abortion businesses to be able to provide appropriate Medical Care for Women injured in botched abortions, Planned Parenthood is reopening the clinic that killed more than 19,000 unborn babies previously.
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Without fanfare, Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas has resumed abortion services in Waco, more than three years after state laws forced it to close.
The abortion clinic at 1121 Ross Ave. opened in mid-April, the result of a U.S. Supreme Court decision last year that overturned provisions under Texas House Bill 2 that the Waco clinic was unable to meet. The Waco clinic got a new license last fall.
The abortion clinic, which opened in 1994, had served about 800 women a year until it closed in 2013 because of its inability to meet the HB2 standards of “ambulatory surgical care” and hospital admitting privileges. The closure left a gap of abortion services between Austin and Dallas-Fort Worth, and Planned Parenthood clinics haven’t seen a corresponding increase in numbers.
Pro-Life Waco director John Pisciotta said the news of the reopening confirmed his fears.
“Certainly, it’s a big disappointment that this has happened, that abortion has returned to Waco,” Pisciotta said. “We had hoped that maybe they would reconsider their decision.”
He said the group would “pivot” back to fighting Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas, both in Waco and in Austin. He said the group will also call out businesses that are friendly to the nonprofit organization.
“For any business that publicly supports Planned Parenthood, we’re going to make the public aware of their decisions,” Pisciotta said. “Our goal is to have Planned Parenthood shut down completely in our city.”
Pisciotta said that, for the first 18 years of its existence, Planned Parenthood did abortions at its facility at 1917 Columbus Ave. The Columbus facility was shut down in December, 2011 and abortions were shifted to the clinic at 1121 Ross Avenue.
The high court ruled 5-3 against the Texas pro-life law with Justice Stephen Breyer writing the decision. Justices Anthony Kennedy, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan joined Breyer. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas dissented.
At issue in the ruling were two provisions–that abortion clinics meet the same building standards as ambulatory surgical centers (ASCs) and that abortionists have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital for situations of medical emergencies.
Texas’ law is arguably responsible for saving the lives of tens of thousands of unborn babies by closing abortion clinics that are unable to protect women’s health. The laws protects women’s health and welfare by requiring abortion clinics to meet the kinds of medical and safety standards that legitimate medical centers meet.
Breyer wrote that “the surgical-center requirement, like the admitting privileges requirement, provides few, if any, health benefits for women, poses a substantial obstacle to women seeking abortions and constitutes an ‘undue burden’ on their constitutional right to do so.”
Justice Clarence Thomas, who authored the dissenting opinion, wrote, “Today the Court strikes down two state statutory provisions in all of their applications, at the behest of abortion clinics and doctors. That decision exemplifies the Court’s troubling tendency ‘to bend the rules when any effort to limit abortion, or even to speak in opposition to abortion, is at issue.’”
He continued, “… today’s decision creates an abortion exception to ordinary rules of res judicata, ignores compelling evidence that Texas’ law imposes no unconstitutional burden, and disregards basic principles of the severability doctrine. I write separately to emphasize how today’s decision perpetuates the Court’s habit of applying different rules to different constitutional rights— especially the putative right to abortion.”
John Seago, the legislative director for Texas Right to Life, said the Supreme Court ruling will have a terrible effect on similar pro-life laws in other states that seek to protect women and unborn children.
“This dangerous SCOTUS ruling allows the abortion industry to challenge any safety laws by threatening to close rather than follow law,” Seago said.
