Supreme Court backs Texas on abortion

Submitted by martin on 23 December, 2021 - 6:59 Author: Angela Paton
Abortion rights USA

Abortion rights and provisions across Mexico and Texas have done a complete switch. In September 2021 the ten-member Mexican Supreme Court voted unanimously to decriminalise abortion in Mexico.

Meanwhile the State of Texas has bolstered its SB8 “heartbeat” act with the introduction of Texas SB4/HB6, making it a felony to distribute medication commonly used in abortion after 49 days (seven weeks) of pregnancy (when the recommended use is up to ten weeks).

Previously some states in Mexico's federal system levied prison terms and steep fines on those who sought abortion or helped those seeking abortion. The State of Coahuilla doled out up to 3 year sentences, although it has now guaranteeed that the thousands of people criminalised and imprisoned over the past few years will be released for any abortion related crime.

The Mexico Supreme Court ruling however does not automatically legalise abortion. Rather, it compels states to comply with the ruling when applying state laws.

Still, the unanimous ruling was a monumental victory in the country with the second largest Roman Catholic population. The decision surprised even the women's rights movement. One Supreme Court judge stated that: “it is not enough to recognise a human right if the effective conditions to enable the exercise of that right are not guaranteed”.

Previously women’s support networks were set up in Mexico that focused on providing support for those seeking abortion, and provision of abortion pills - the pills that are now illegal for use in abortion in Texas after 49 days. The pills, which are also prescribed for gastrointestinal ulcers, are available extremely cheaply over the counter in Mexico, but would require a prescription in the US.

Women’s support networks in Mexico are now reporting that women from Texas are contacting them online, through Whats App groups and in person to get support and abortion pills. This involves women travelling across the border into Mexico, and women crossing the border into Texas with abortion pills and posting them using the US postal service.

There is already a well established support and underground network. But US border controls have inevitably generated border gangs for smuggling drugs and people. This new attack on abortion rights in Texas could provide yet another lucrative avenue for those gangs to profit.

Because the Texas Senate Bill 4 (SB4)/Health Bill 6 (HB6) took effect on 2 December 2021, it is now a felony to distribute drugs used in abortion to pregnant women, with penalties of state jail terms and up to $10,000 fines. Whether the State of Texas can enforce the law effectively remains to be seen.

Meanwhile, a US Supreme Court (SCOTUS) ruling on 10 December has closed major avenues against Texas SB8, the law which bans abortion after six weeks. The Supreme Court even ruled against Biden’s Department of Justice for blocking SB8.

The ruling does not allow most state officials to be sued under SB8, but does allow actions against those responsible for state licensing of doctors who provide the prescriptions, as SB8 falls under health regulations. The case is now going to federal level for abortion providers to challenge.

This is a quagmire of complex and “novel” litigation. The Texas SB8 decision is about the standing of parties to sue those who aid abortion after six weeks and the judicial process involved, not about abortion rights per se. The ruling will become moot once SCOTUS rules next June or July on the other abortion case in front of them last week - Dobbs vs Jackson Women’s Health, in Mississippi.

The Mississippi case is still seen by all as the main abortion case. The State of Mississippi is pushing for a 15 week limit on abortions, with no exceptions for rape or incest. Currently Roe v Wade (21 January 1973) and Casey vs Planned Parenthood (1992) determine the viability of a foetus at 24 weeks. Jackson Women’s Health lawyers are arguing before the Supreme Court that a reduction to 15 weeks would reduce access and autonomy.

The State of Mississippi knew its legislation would be face legal objections and therefore be sent to the Supreme Court for ruling.

Conservative justice Amy Coney Barratt, an insulting replacement on the death of Ruth Bader Ginsberg, seriously put forward adoption as an alternative to abortion as valid for women now, basing herself on laws very rarely used where parental rights can be severed without penalty and children adopted privately. 900,000 abortions are carried out in the US every year, while 18,000 private adoptions are carried out.

Mississippi State Attorney General Lynn Fitch argued before the Supreme Court that she managed as a single working mother of three, so other women can too, conveniently omits that she has a privileged background with no financial worries.

Fitch and anti-abortion campaigners have been sly in their language, claiming that their argument is about protecting women and their health, not about the foetus. Fitch says that she has long advocated for equal pay for women, which sounds good, but hers is in the only state left in the US with no equal pay statues on the books. She also advocates financial literacy classes instead of late term abortions. How can you ever be financially literate when you have no money and you can’t afford the $500 (figure for Chicago 2020) for an abortion in the first place? This doesn’t even begin to cover all the other arguments about unwanted pregnancies.

According to Fitch, everything will be ok because the churches, charities, pregnancy crisis centres, family and friends and the wider community will all step up to help raise children so mothers can go out to work - and therefore, there’s no need for abortion. She ignored the right of women to autonomy when making decisions about their own bodies.

The expected SCOTUS ruling will have a massive impact, not just in Mississippi, where there is a large percentage of women who are in poverty, especially women of colour, who cannot access abortion services even with the 24-week limit, but across the USA as a whole.

22 states have already enacted “trigger bans”, limiting or banning abortion at various gestational ages immediately if SCOTUS rule in favour of Mississippi in summer 2022.

American states have previously created sanctuary cities for immigrants, including those from Mexico. They are now setting up sanctuary cities for abortion services. California has already made abortion services a constitutionally-guaranteed right (though with no mention of who pays for them), thus making itself a “safe haven” state. Oregon and New York who are looking to protect and expand abortion rights for their citizens, including amending current health regulations to allow nurse practitioners to carry out abortion procedures as well as doctors.

It remains galling and shocking that highly Catholic Mexico has now decriminalised abortion, and supports women from its rich neighbour, the USA, which is lauded for liberal rights yet criminalises people who seek abortion and those who help people access. From Mexico to Mississippi, a complete turn around indeed.

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