Days after the United States Supreme Court handed down its 5-3 ruling regarding the Texas abortion law requiring doctors who perform abortions to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals, Planned Parenthood has announced that they will repeal the decision together with eight states.
Aside from the first requirement, the Supreme Court also ruled that abortion clinics should follow strict rules to meet hospital-like standards from the tiles to the measurements of the room where the abortion procedure is done.
The Washington Times reported that Planned Parenthood plans to work with Arizona, Florida, Michigan, Missouri, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia. Dawn Laguens, the executive vice president of Planned Parenthood Action Fund, said in a statement, "We will fight back state by state and law by law until every person has access to safe, legal abortion. No matter how long it takes, these laws will fall."
Helene Krasnoff, the senior director of public policy litigation and law at the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, also released a statement saying that the laws are unjust, dangerous, and unconstitutional. Krasnoff said that more states will be added to their list.
Due to the Supreme Court ruling, more than half of the state's 41 abortion clinics have been closed down. Clinics were closing down one by one since the law was passed back in 2013. A total of 19 abortion clinics are still open in Texas as some hospital leaders opposing abortion denied privileges to doctors thus abortion doctors are unable to practice due to the new requirements.
From 2011, many laws were passed regarding abortion. In Indiana, for example, women must learn about perinatal hospice services before they may terminate a pregnancy. Louisiana passed a law last May requiring 72 hours instead of the former 24 hours that women should wait before pushing through with the abortion.
After the ruling of the Supreme Court on the Texas laws, the same laws were abolished in Mississippi, Wisconsin, and Alabama.