“Republicans don't control the Supreme Court yet, but three Republican judges are getting a head start.”
Think Progress has a heart-stopping article that sounds like the first salvo being fired at Roe v. Wade.
A panel of three Republican judges openly defied the Supreme Court on Monday, permitting a law that is nearly identical to the abortion restriction the justices struck down in Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt to take effect.
(emphasis added)
While the Missouri law in question is, indeed, very similar to Hellerstedt, it’s actually more restrictive.
The law struck down in Hellerstedt merely required abortion doctors to “have active admitting privileges at a hospital” within 30 miles of the clinic. The Missouri law requires abortion providers to be able to perform surgeries in a nearby hospital, and it requires that hospital to be no more than “15 minutes away.”
The reasoning given is ludicrous on its face:
And yet, the panel of three Republican judges all conclude that this provision may stand, at least for now. Judge Shepherd claims this result is justified because “Hellerstedt did not find, as a matter of law, that abortion was inherently safe or that provisions similar to the laws it considered would never be constitutional.” The Supreme Court’s opinion in Hellerstedt determined that abortion was very safe in the state of Texas, but “no such determination about abortion in Missouri was made here.”
Twisting the law in to a pretzel shape is in order to get a desired outcome is nothing new for Republicans but this instance is especially egregious. As Think Progress points out, uteri in Missouri are not inherently different from uteri in Texas and abortion procedures are the same.
Of course, this appeal will now go to the Supreme Court. There is no doubt in my mind that *that* is exactly and specifically the goal of this ruling.
For the moment, the Supreme Court is split evenly between four pro-choice Democrats and four Republicans who oppose abortion. It takes five justices to reverse Shepherd’s decision in Hawley.
We all know about Drumpf’s nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, and we all know what Republicans fully expect is coming. They’ve been working fervently toward this since 1973 but their goal seems to be to take America backwards, much further back than that. Let’s see, in 1873, women couldn’t vote and neither could blacks. Yeah, that’s the ticket: 1873!