Decision Will Likely Impact Tennessee Laws
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 27, 2016
CONTACT: Lindsay Kee, ACLU-TN communications director, 615-320-7142
NASHVILLE – In what has been described as the most important abortion decision in decades, the United States Supreme Court today struck down both provisions of Texas’s HB2 abortion law. The 5-3 ruling in Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt strikes down both the mandate that abortion providers have admitting privileges at local hospitals and the requirement that abortion clinics have facilities comparable to an outpatient surgical center.
The court noted that both the admitting privileges and surgical center requirements place a substantial obstacle in the path of women seeking a previability abortion, constitute an undue burden on abortion access, and thus violate the Constitution.
Litigation on similar laws in Tennessee is currently pending in district court.
The following can be attributed to Thomas H. Castelli, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee:
“Today’s decision sends a strong message that laws imposed to create obstacles for a woman seeking to end a pregnancy rather than to actually safeguard her health violate the Constitution. The Supreme Court’s ruling strongly suggests that similar Tennessee laws should be struck down as unconstitutional, as they amount to political interference in a woman’s private healthcare decisions and do nothing to protect a woman’s health.”
The full decision can be accessed here: https://www.aclu.org/legal-document/whole-womans-health-v-hellerstedt-ruling
More information is at: https://www.aclu.org/cases/whole-womans-health-v-hellerstedt
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