Remember what good news feels like? The Supreme Court ruled Monday against a Louisiana law mandating abortion providers have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals — a policy that could have closed down all of the state’s few abortion clinics.
Another abortion rights disaster has been averted, but don’t get complacent: More are on their way
Since there are so few bright spots these days, I plan on spending some time basking in the unfamiliar glow of a win — but, as NARAL Pro-Choice America president Ilyse Hogue put it, “Let’s make sure we’re ready for the next attack.”
Because while the SCOTUS decision is a loss for conservatives — and, boy, are they mad — it won’t necessarily change their tactics that brought us the Louisiana law in the first place.
The law, enacted in 2014, is part of a broad anti-abortion strategy that hinges on so-called targeted regulation of abortion providers (TRAP) laws — policies that chip away at the ability of abortion providers to remain open. TRAP laws can range from requiring janitor’s closets be a certain size to mandating that clinics operate in far more complicated and expensive facilities than needed. Their goal is more or less the same: to overburden clinics to death.
Legislators who propose and pass TRAP laws do so under the guise of protecting women’s health — they claim abortion clinics put patients at risk.
TRAP laws have been terrifyingly effective across the country. When Texas enacted laws mandating admitting privileges for abortion providers, for example, so many clinics closed that the number of women who lived more than 100 miles away from an abortion clinic tripled as an effect. Early abortions also plummeted while abortions later in pregnancy went up because of how difficult it became to obtain the procedure. (The Texas law was also struck down by the Supreme Court.) Other TRAP laws border on the ridiculous — like the one in Alabama requiring that abortion clinics not operate within 2,000 feet of any public school, a mandate similar to the kind sex offenders must adhere to.
Legislators who propose and pass TRAP laws do so under the guise of protecting women’s health — they claim abortion clinics put patients at risk. The truth, however, is that abortion is one of the safest medical procedures that exist. A 2014 study showed that serious complications after an abortion occur less than 1% of the time; and in 2018, another study showed that it was actually state restrictions that made the procedure riskier by increasing delays to care.
In fact, it’s because abortion is such a safe procedure that providers can have trouble gaining admitting privileges. Hospitals often decide who to grant privileges to based on financial considerations — meaning, who will bring in the most patients. Abortion providers almost never need to transfer their patients to the hospital, which makes them a bad investment.
The Supreme Court recognized the onus that the Louisiana law put on people seeking abortions, but that doesn’t mean that state laws won’t continue to chip away at that right. Anti-abortion policies are on the rise — from restrictions to outright bans — and while we battle these issues in the courts, the most marginalized communities suffer. They’re the ones with no clinic in their county, no way to take multiple days off work to fulfill state waiting periods, and no money to procure a procedure that conservatives ensure can’t be paid for by Medicaid.
Conservatives don’t really care about abortion’s safety — their agenda is about limiting women’s rights and kneecapping providers in any way they can. And they’ll continue that strategy — day by day and state by state — no matter what the courts say.
So let’s celebrate today and thank all of the activists and abortion-rights leaders who brought us this win. And then let’s get back to work.