29 Jun STATEMENT on U.S. Supreme Court Deciding to Protect Abortion Access

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 29, 2020
Contact: Will Pregman, wpregman@battlebornprogress.org, 702.752.0656

STATEMENT on U.S. Supreme Court Deciding to Protect Abortion Access

LAS VEGAS, NV – This morning, on a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court of the United States decided to strike down a Louisiana law that would have decimated abortion access in the state and set a dangerous precedent for abortion rights across the country. June Medical Services v. Russo is a major abortion rights case challenging a clinic shutdown law in Louisiana. The law would have required abortion providers to have medically unnecessary, and often impossible-to-obtain, admitting privileges at a local hospital.

Annette Magnus, Executive Director of Battle Born Progress, said the following:

“Many of us were ready for a bad decision on this case that would have resulted in the right-wing extremists’ wish of decimating abortion in our country come true. If the Supreme Court would have allowed this clinic shutdown law to go into effect, it would have severely restricted abortion access in Louisiana and set precedent for how abortion access is handled in states across the country. Admitting privileges has nothing to do with patient health or safety. It does not make any patient safer. It’s another deceptive ploy by anti-abortion politicians whose goal is to eliminate access to abortion care.”

“The danger comes from fewer clinics, causing more delays in care, greater travel distances, longer waits for appointments, more time off work required, lost wages, and higher cost of care–pushing abortion care entirely out of reach for many, especially communities of color. This is part of a longterm attempt by anti-abortion extremists to take us backward in time and take away abortion rights. That’s why we fought so hard in Nevada to protect abortion access in our state this past 2019 legislative session by passing the Trust Nevada Women Act. Today’s decision thankfully extends protection to those clinics in Louisiana, and throughout the nation.”

About June Medical Services v. Russo: This case challenges a Louisiana law (Act 620) that prevents doctors from providing abortion services in the state unless they have secured admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of where they provide abortion care. This law’s aim is to decimate abortion access by closing clinics in the state — and it is identical to a Texas law struck down by the Supreme Court as unconstitutional in  Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt. Louisiana’s law is part of an ongoing, nationwide effort to regulate abortion out of existence—effectively banning abortion without directly touching the 1973 landmark Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade. 

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