Pro-choice college students have win in SCOTUS Texas ruling

Courtney Rozen | Paste BN-Unknown

The Supreme Court struck down a Texas abortion law today by a vote of 5-3, saying that the law restricted a woman’s access to abortion in the state and didn’t provide health benefits to them.

</p><p>The case, called <em>Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt</em>, has been called the largest abortion case the Supreme Court has seen in more than two decades.</p><p>Abortion restrictions like the one Texas introduced -- but was struck down by SCOTUS -- have the potential to drastically affect women in college.</p><p>Abortion <a href=http://www.cdc.gov/reproductivehealth/data_stats/abortion.htm>reporting</a> isn’t required by law, making it difficult to count exactly how many college women have had the procedure. The <a href=https://www.guttmacher.org/sites/default/files/report_pdf/characteristics-us-abortion-patients-2014.pdf>Guttmacher Institute</a> reported that in 2014, 60% of all abortion patients were women in their 20’s, and that about 24% of of all abortion patients that year were currently attending school.</p><partner-banner util-module-path=elements/partner fluid bottom lazy class=spacer-large min-height=390 outstream></partner-banner><p>“Young people face extreme barriers to be able to access the care that they need,” said Julia Reticker-Flynn, Director of Youth Organizing and Mobilization for <a href=http://www.advocatesforyouth.org>Advocates for Youth</a>. “I think for college women across the country, this is a great moment.”</p><p>It’s been 43 years since <a href=http://www.pbs.org/wnet/supremecourt/rights/landmark_roe.html>Roe v. Wade</a>, so modern college women in America have only known life with some type of legal abortion.</p><partner-inline util-module-path=elements/partner class=spacer-large placement=native-article_link sizes="[[300, 250], [3, 3]]" min-height=250 fluid outstream></partner-inline><cta-atoms-container-inline util-module-path=elements/cta class=spacer-large></cta-atoms-container-inline><p>Today's case positioned the state of Texas against <a href=http://wholewomanshealth.com>Whole Woman's Health</a>, a Texas woman's health care provider.</p><p>Judy Vatterott, board member of <a href=http://www.foundationforlife.org/>Right to Life Advocates</a>, said she and her colleagues grew concerned about cleanliness standards in abortion clinics and the prevalence of out-of-state doctors performing abortions in Texas. Right to Life Advocates in the political arm of <a href=http://www.foundationforlife.org>Foundation for Life</a>, a nonprofit that cares for pregnant mothers where Vatterott served as director for 35 years. She says that the majority of her foundation’s clients are college-aged women, or women in their early 20’s.</p><partner-banner util-module-path=elements/partner fluid bottom lazy class=spacer-large min-height=600 outstream momentum></partner-banner><partner-inline util-module-path=elements/partner placement=native-article_link sizes="[[300, 250], [3, 3]]" min-height=250 fluid outstream></partner-inline><p>“After we saw a number of women who were injured and some who died from their so-called safe, legal abortions, we realized that more protections [were needed] for them,” Vatterott said.</p><p>They lobbied the Texas state legislature for HB2, the law struck down by the Supreme Court today. Texas implemented the law's two provisions in 2014 to increase women’s health protections. It required abortion clinics to meet the same facilities standards as outpatient surgical centers. Doctors also had to have admitting privileges to a hospital.</p><p>“If that’s what they [college women] choose, they should have the assurance that’s everything been done to make it as safe as possible,” Vatterott said.</p><p>On the other side, Whole Woman’s Health and the Center for Reproductive Rights argued that HB2 presented “undue burden” on women. That term comes from <a href=https://www.oyez.org/cases/1991/91-744><em>Planned Parenthood v. Casey</em></a>, a 1992 ruling that granted states the right to restrict abortion access as long as the restrictions didn’t place “undue burden” on the pregnant woman.</p><partner-banner util-module-path=elements/partner fluid bottom lazy class=spacer-large min-height=390 outstream></partner-banner><p>“This law in particular would have shut down clinics in Texas, and has already shut down some,” Reticker-Flynn said. “Students who are going to school in Rio Grande Valley or in Brownsville [Texas] would have to travel hundreds of miles, take time off from school and somehow come up with the money.”</p><p>The number of abortion clinics in the state has shrunk from 41 to 19 since the law was implemented, according to a <a href=http://liberalarts.utexas.edu/txpep/_files/pdf/TxPEP-ResearchBrief-AdmittingPrivileges.pdf>research brief</a> published in February by the Texas Policy Evaluation Project at the University of Texas at Austin. Only 28 physicians in Texas could provide an abortion, as opposed to 48 before the law went into effect, according to the same report.<br><blockquote class=twitter-tweet><br></blockquote></p><partner-inline util-module-path=elements/partner class=spacer-large placement=native-article_link sizes="[[300, 250], [3, 3]]" min-height=250 fluid outstream></partner-inline><p>This is a victory for women and families in Texas and across the country! <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/MyDecision?src=hash">#MyDecision</a><a href=https://t.co/UoCSyzxHT3>pic.twitter.com/UoCSyzxHT3</a></p><a>June 27, 2016</a><blockquote class=twitter-tweet><p dir=ltr lang=en>Tomorrow, the Justices clean out their lockers, turn in their case books, and pack for camp!<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/SCOTUS?src=hash">#SCOTUS</a></p>— Slick Sharkey, Esq. (@SlickSharkey) <a href=https://twitter.com/SlickSharkey/status/747442682797096960>June 27, 2016</a></blockquote><partner-banner util-module-path=elements/partner fluid bottom lazy class=spacer-large min-height=390 outstream></partner-banner><p class=credit><i>Courtney Rozen is a student at American University and a Paste BN College breaking news correspondent.</i></p><p><i>This story originally appeared on the Paste BN College blog, a news source produced for college students by student journalists. The blog closed in September of 2017.</i></p><p></p><lit-timestamp class="column ten-column no-gutter spacer-small" slot=timestamp publishdate="2016-06-27 16:40:28 +0000 UTC" updatedate="2016-06-27 16:40:28 +0000 UTC"></lit-timestamp><style>html a.nsb-link,html .primary-content a.nsb-link{box-shadow:0 0;cursor:pointer;height:var(--spacer-twentyfour,24px);margin-right:var(--spacer-twentyfour,24px);text-shadow:none;width:var(--spacer-twentyfour,24px)}a.nsb-link span{max-width:0;overflow:hidden;position:absolute;visibility:hidden}.nsb-svg{height:var(--spacer-twentyfour,24px);width:var(--spacer-twentyfour,24px)}.nsb-twitter-button{fill:var(--social-twitter,#4099ff)}.nsb-email-button{fill:var(--color-dove-gray,#787878)}.nsb-facebook-button{fill:var(--social-facebook,#3b5998)}.nsb-sms-button{fill:var(--color-ui-green,#008c33)}.nsb-svg.gallery{fill:var(--color-ui-white,#fff)}</style><div class="spacer-small column ten-column no-gutter"><a alt="Post the article to your Facebook Timeline" class="nsb-link nsb-facebook inline-flex" data-size=large onclick="fireNavShareAnalytics('facebook');" rel=noopener target=_blank><svg class="universal-low nsb-svg nsb-facebook-button" view-box='0 0 24 24'> <path d="M12.6143832,21 L3.99346182,21 C3.44462725,21 3,20.5550968 3,20.006476 L3,3.99345411 C3,3.44469364 3.44469709,3 3.99346182,3 L20.006608,3 C20.5552331,3 21,3.44469364 21,3.99345411 L21,20.006476 C21,20.5551667 20.5551632,21 20.006608,21 L15.4197395,21 L15.4197395,14.029408 L17.7594454,14.029408 L18.1097832,11.3128446 L15.4197395,11.3128446 L15.4197395,9.57849053 C15.4197395,8.79198274 15.6381418,8.25600363 16.7659836,8.25600363 L18.2044917,8.25537504 L18.2044917,5.82565895 C17.9557072,5.79255313 17.1017938,5.71858885 16.108332,5.71858885 C14.0343128,5.71858885 12.6143832,6.98457234 12.6143832,9.30945332 L12.6143832,11.3128446 L10.2686707,11.3128446 L10.2686707,14.029408 L12.6143832,14.029408 L12.6143832,21 L12.6143832,21 Z"></path> </svg><span>Facebook</span></a> <a alt="Tweet about this article" class="nsb-twitter nsb-link inline-flex" data-size=large onclick="fireNavShareAnalytics('twitter')" rel=noopener target=_blank><svg class="universal-low nsb-svg nsb-twitter-button" view-box='0 0 24 24'> <path d="M21,6.77573131 C20.338616,7.07692308 19.6265188,7.28060672 18.8795563,7.3716143 C19.6423666,6.9035753 20.2276809,6.16143012 20.5034337,5.27735645 C19.7892235,5.71072589 19,6.02600217 18.1568938,6.19501625 C17.4849445,5.45937161 16.5245642,5 15.461701,5 C13.4236661,5 11.770206,6.69555796 11.770206,8.78656555 C11.770206,9.08342362 11.8019017,9.3716143 11.8652932,9.64897075 C8.79609086,9.4907909 6.07554147,7.98483207 4.25303751,5.69122427 C3.93502377,6.2524377 3.75330164,6.9035753 3.75330164,7.59696641 C3.75330164,8.91007584 4.40517697,10.0693391 5.39619651,10.7486457 C4.79186476,10.7302275 4.22134179,10.5579632 3.72266244,10.276273 L3.72266244,10.3228602 C3.72266244,12.1581798 4.9957739,13.6890574 6.68621236,14.035753 C6.37665082,14.1245937 6.05018489,14.1690141 5.71315372,14.1690141 C5.47543582,14.1690141 5.24300053,14.1462622 5.01796091,14.1018418 C5.4881141,15.6056338 6.85103011,16.7009751 8.46751189,16.7302275 C7.20390914,17.7464789 5.61067089,18.3521127 3.88114105,18.3521127 C3.58320127,18.3521127 3.28843106,18.3347779 3,18.3001083 C4.63444268,19.3726977 6.57633386,20 8.66085578,20 C15.4543053,20 19.1679873,14.2307692 19.1679873,9.22643554 C19.1679873,9.06175515 19.1648177,8.89707476 19.1584786,8.73564464 C19.8800845,8.20151679 20.5066033,7.53521127 21,6.77573131"></path> </svg><span>Twitter</span></a> <a alt="Email this article" class="nsb-email nsb-link inline-flex" onclick="fireNavShareAnalytics('email')" rel=noopener target=_blank><svg class="universal-low nsb-svg nsb-email-button" view-box='0 0 24 24'> <path d="M3,5.8757627 C3,5.39209232 3.39269552,5 3.8926228,5 L20.1073772,5 C20.6003592,5 21,5.40389442 21,5.8757627 L21,18.1242373 C21,18.6079077 20.6073045,19 20.1073772,19 L3.8926228,19 C3.39964084,19 3,18.5961056 3,18.1242373 L3,5.8757627 Z M12,11.09375 L3,6.74107143 L3,8.48214286 L12,12.8348214 L21,8.48214286 L21,6.74107143 L12,11.09375 Z"></path> </svg><span>Email</span></a></div><script> (function () { let route = window.ga_data.route, headline = route.headline || document.title, url = route.url, sponsoredText = (route.sponsoredSeries || route.sponsoredStory) ? 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