August 4, 2014: Day 1 of the Trial
"Mortality-wise, abortion is safer than a shot of penicillin"
August 5, 2014 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
from Mary Lou Greenberg
In Austin, Texas with the Abortion Rights Freedom Ride, I attended the first day of the trial to determine whether all but six abortion clinics in this vast state will be shut down by September 1. While the Freedom Riders held banners outside the courthouse supporting abortion providers and proclaiming "Forced Motherhood is Female Enslavement," inside, abortion doctors and others testified about the great difficulties women will be forced to go through if HB2 is ruled constitutional.
The particular part of the bill being challenged in this trial requires all abortion clinics to meet the standards required for ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs)—small hospitals—the cost of which would be prohibitive ($3 million to build one ASC). This is something totally unnecessary for good abortion services because, as several testified, abortion is one of the safest medical procedures there is. As one doctor told the court, "mortality-wise, abortion is safer than a shot of penicillin."
Other facts brought out by the doctors and in the opening statement by the lawyers for the clinics challenging the law:
Abortion safety: From 2008-2012 in Texas, 548 women died from pregnancy-related causes. In that same time period, 1 woman died from abortion complications.
Women affected: Almost one million women will be forced to drive more than 150 miles to an abortion clinic if the law remains.
Throughout, attorneys for the state of Texas defended the law by asserting that women would not have an "undue burden" (a term used for defining the constitutionality of abortion restrictions) accessing abortions, citing findings that women were able to overcome obstacles of traveling long distances and being forced to have later abortions at greater financial cost. In other words, because when faced with unwanted pregnancies women persist in trying to get abortions despite tremendous personal hardship and health risks, that means there's no "undue burden"!! And perhaps because there are not yet wards in public hospitals devoted to women who come in with sepsis—poisoning from infections from unsafe illegal abortions—as there used to be before legal abortion, there's no "undue burden."
And this "reasoning" would conclude that there is no "undue burden" just because of reports that women increasingly are trying to self-induce abortions with coat hangers and other instruments.
This is an outrageous situation, and if HB2 stands it will be disastrous for not only women in Texas, but everywhere!
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