The female members of the U.S. Supreme Court–Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Elena Kagan, and Sonia Sotomayor–were highly critical of a Texas law which would close all but ten family planning clinics in the Lone Star state, and they made their objections known during oral arguments on Wednesday.
Texas Solicitor General Scott Keller was repeatedly questioned by the three women on the high court, along with Justice Stephen Breyer.
Justice Ginsburg led the grilling of Keller, asking him:
“How many women are located over 100 miles from the nearest clinic?”
Keller replied by saying that women could always access another clinic in…New Mexico!
Ginsburg pointed out to the state attorney that the New Mexico facility has neither the admitting privileges provision nor the requirement to upgrade the abortion clinics which are part of the Texas legislation, adding:
“If your argument is right, then New Mexico is not an available way out.”
And Justice Ginsburg also wondered aloud why it was necessary to force all clinics to meet the higher surgical standards in the Texas law when many abortions are performed by the use of medication.
“What is the benefit of having an ambulatory surgical center to take two pills when there’s not a surgical procedure at all involved?”
Justice Elena Kagan said she had numbers showing that hundreds of thousands of women would be negatively impacted by living over 100 miles from a licensed clinic:
“The statistics that I gleaned from the record were that 900,000 women live further than 150 miles from a provider.”
Stephanie Toti, a lawyer with the Center for Reproductive Rights, also commented on the new Texas restrictions:
“The impact of these closures has been dire, delaying many women — and preventing others — from obtaining a legal abortion. This, in turn, has led to an increase in abortions later in pregnancy and in illegal abortions.”
This is the first case involving the right to choose that has been heard by the high court since the death of Justice Antonin Scalia.
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