Recently, the Supreme Court shot down the very controversial Texas Law HB-2, and many people all over the country rejoiced, with the crowd outside the courthouse being proof of that. But what is HB-2, and why did people feel so strongly about it? Many of the people supporting the take-down of this law don’t even live in Texas. So why do they care so much?
Well, HB-2 is a bill that would require abortion care providers within the state of Texas have admitting privileges to nearby hospitals, which doesn’t actually sound so terrible. However, if HB-2 was passed, it would shut down almost half of Texas’s abortion clinics.
It’s already really difficult to get an abortion in Texas, with laws requiring a patient to get an ultrasound, listen to a state mandated script that is read to them by their provider, and make four visits to their provider before being given the abortion pill. All of those things are medically unnecessary; they’re just more hoops that a patient and their provider have to jump through.
With only a few abortion clinics across the large state of Texas, and the millions of women who need them, getting an abortion in the state of Texas is nearly impossible. Patients have to drive hundreds of miles, at great cost to them, only to have to wait to get the procedure done.
This bill would have taken away a woman’s right to choose what happens to her body, therefore, a right to abortion.
However, the law was deemed unconstitutional in a 5-3 ruling.
This is a victory for the pro-choice movement today. However, there is far more work to do if we want to secure every woman’s right to an abortion.
CNN’s article on Texas law, HB-2
