In the coming days, the Supreme Court will issue its decision in Whole Woman's Health v. Hellerstedt, a case that could redefine abortion access in America. The stakes for women in this case cannot be overstated. A woman's very right to access safe, legal abortion is before the Court, and the consequences may reverberate far beyond Texas.
This law has nothing to do with women's health, and everything to do with shutting down abortion providers. If the Court upholds the law, it would permanently close all but 10 abortion providers in Texas and pave the way for more states to enact similar laws.
Do we really want to be a country in which you can access safe, legal abortion only if you're lucky enough to live in the right city?
Texas paints a grim picture of what could become a reality for people across the country if politicians continue to restrict access to abortion. Women in Texas are already traveling hundreds of miles, crossing state lines, and waiting weeks to get an abortion, if they can at all. And at least 100,000 Texas women have tried to end a pregnancy on their own, without medical assistance.
This is part of a political agenda to ban safe, legal abortion, plain and simple. Politicians have passed 317 restrictions on safe, legal abortion at the state level since 2011. In fact, just this past legislative session in Minnesota, we stopped several bills aimed at restricting access to abortion from becoming law. That's all despite the fact that Americans overwhelmingly support a woman's right to access abortion without government interference.
Your voice, your generosity and your commitment to Planned Parenthood's patients make a difference. Thank you for standing together with us for the constitutional right to abortion, for women in Texas and for women across the entire country.
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