An All-Out Assault
This SCOTUS will never stop
The state of Texas has one of the most extreme and restrictive anti-abortion laws in the country and, thanks to a ruling by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, Texas has been able to ignore provisions in the federal Emergency Medicine and Labor Act. EMTALA, as it’s known was passed in 1986 to ensure that all patient’s, regardless of their status, will be provided with emergency medical services in any hospital that accepts payments from Medicare.
After the corrupt illegitimate super-majority on the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022, the provisions in EMTALA were expanded to included emergency abortions. In other words, federal law supersedes state law when it comes to emergency abortion care.
The Fifth Circuit sided with Texas, turning that notion on is head and forcing the Biden administration to appeal its decision to the Supreme Court. On the first day of its new term, SCOTUS, without offering any reason for its decision, refused to hear the Biden administration’s appeal.
Yesterday was yet another dark day for women in Texas, but the Court’s failure to take up the appeal is also likely an indication where the issue regarding EMTALA may be headed. Many other states with extremely restrictive abortion laws will likely challenge and defy EMTALA—and the Supreme Court is going to let them.
Yesterday we also learned that Georgia Supreme Court reinstated a state law that prohibits abortions beyond six weeks of pregnancy. (A reminder, many women do not even know they’re pregnant at six weeks.) Because Republicans have no sense of irony and revel in tormenting us, the law is called the “Living Infants Fairness and Equality Act, or LIFE Act”
Not too long ago, Georgia residents, Amber Nicole Thurman and Candi Miller, died because they were prevented from getting the emergency abortion care that would have saved their lives. This decision by the Georgia Supreme Court will put even more women’s lives needless at risk.
There will almost certainly be an appeal to the Supreme Court, and almost certainly the Georgia decision will be upheld.
The U.S. Supreme Court is also allowing a wrongful death lawsuit against an Alabama fertility clinic to proceed. In 2021 the Mobile-based Center for Reproductive Medicine was sued by a couple after another patient gained unauthorized access to a storage area and dropped some embryos, including theirs, which resulted in the embryo’s destruction. In February of this year, the Alabama Supreme Court ruled the lawsuit against could proceed because the Court has decided that frozen embryos are children. As stated in the Wrongful Death of a Minor Act:
is sweeping and unqualified. It applies to all children, born and unborn, without limitation. It is not the role of this Court to craft a new limitation based on our own view of what is or is not wise public policy. That is especially true where, as here, the People of this State have adopted a Constitutional amendment directly aimed at stopping courts from excluding ‘unborn life’ from legal protection.
If the polls are correct, there’s currently a 50-50 chance that, after January 20, 2025, women in this country will be second class citizens with no rights over their own bodies. This is an issue that should resonate with all women—women in red states, suburban women, Republican women.
We know that the issue of choice and reproductive rights has proved compelling to voters in even the reddest states, including Kansas, Ohio, and Indiana.
Democrats have done a good job of changing the narrative around reproductive rights, making it clear that abortion is healthcare. It's that simple. This issue affects not only women who have unwanted pregnancies, in which case; it also affects women who experience complications during wanted pregnant; it has a massive impact on children who are raped and impregnated by their rapists.
Life for women and girls in this country is going to keep getting worse unless Democrats maintain and increase their power and see this as the permission they need to reform this out-of-control Supreme Court.
I can’t believe I’ve been fighting this fight for FIFTY YEARS! There is not ONE law on the books regarding MEN. Last time I looked, and I am 71 years old, it took a man and a woman to achieve pregnancy. When men are punished for putting their choadie in my vajayjay and making me pregnant then I’ll sit down and shut up. But only then.
I have said this in other forums - men should see this as their issue, too. The health of the women in my life is more important to me than anything. I’ll do whatever is necessary to get them the health care they need. I believe this is not just a woman’s issue. This is a public health issue. This is a Do-What’s-Right issue. We all need to get onboard.