Whole Woman's Health v. Hellerstedt

Description: Abortionists in Texas filed suit against the state's women’s safety law known as House Bill 2. Most recently, they challenged a provision that requires abortion facilities to meet the same health and safety standards as ambulatory surgical centers, and a provision that requires abortionists to have admitting privileges at a local hospital in the event a woman must seek hospital care due to post-abortion complications.

Monday, Jun 27, 2016

The following quote may be attributed to Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel Steven H. Aden regarding the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision Thursday in Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt that invalidates a Texas law requiring abortion facilities to meet the same health and safety standards as ambulatory surgical centers and that further protected women by requiring abortionists to have admitting privileges at a local hospital in the event a woman must seek hospital care due to post-abortion complications:

“Abortionists shouldn’t be given a free pass to elude medical requirements that everyone else is required to follow. We are disappointed that the Supreme Court has ruled against a law so clearly designed to protect the health and safety of women in the wake of the Kermit Gosnell scandal. The law’s requirements were commonsense protections that ensured the maximum amount of protection for women, who deserve to have their well-being treated by government as a higher priority than the bottom line of abortionists. Any abortion facilities that don’t meet basic health and safety standards are not facilities that anyone should want to remain open.”

Aden will join Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to discuss the case in a briefing for the media at 12 p.m. EDT. Log in via web using password SCOTUS or via phone using PIN 902439#. Primary dial-in number is (425) 440-5100; secondary dial-in number is (602) 281-1903.

ADF attorneys filed a brief with the Supreme Court on behalf of the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the American College of Pediatricians, the Christian Medical & Dental Association, the Catholic Medical Association, and Physicians for Life.

Alliance Defending Freedom is an alliance-building, non-profit legal organization that advocates for the right of people to freely live out their faith.

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