Supreme Court Gives Abortion Industry 'A Free Pass' on Women's Health and Safety, Pro-Lifers Say

By Samuel Smith, Deputy Managing Editor Monday, June 27, 2016

Demonstrators hold signs outside the U.S. Supreme Court as the court is due to issue its first major abortion ruling since 2007 against a backdrop of unremitting divisions among Americans on the issue and a decades-long decline in the rate at which women terminate pregnancies in Washington, U.S. June 27, 2016. | (Photo: Reuters/Kevin Lamarque)

Perkins explained that over 26,500 women in 2011 experienced abortion-related complications and 3,200 women needed to be hospitalized after their abortion.

"The Supreme Court's decision to strike down H.B. 2 undermines the health and safety of vulnerable women. This decision is a loss for women and gives the abortion industry a free pass," Perkins argued. "Hair and nail salons, public pools, restaurants, and tanning centers must meet basic health and safety standards — shouldn't abortion facilities? Abortion facilities cannot be exempt from following basic health standards."

Russell Moore, president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, called the Supreme Court's decision "sad" and "pathetic."

"The court handed down a sad and pathetic ruling that essentially leaves the abortion industry unregulated in a kind of wild west, laissez faire sort of situation in the state of Texas that we wouldn't allow for any other industry," Moore said in a video posted to Twitter. "I think this ought to show us, as the church, just how far we have to go in persuading our neighbors of the dignity and the sanctity of every human life — not because of the usefulness of that human life as it is perceived by society but because of the image of God."

Lila Rose, president of the pro-life advocacy group Live Action, said in a statement shared with CP that despite the ruling, "the abortion lobby's victory will be short lived" because more and more people are starting to "recognize the humanity of the child in the womb."

"Polls show that people's hearts and minds are changing on abortion as science now shows that human life begins at conception, but the court remains stuck in the anti-science, pro-abortion ideology of the 1970s," Rose said. "While no woman or preborn child is safe in an abortion facility, it ought to raise huge red flags that the abortion industry — while claiming the banner of 'women's health' — is willing to compromise women's safety by refusing to meet the same basic health and safety standards that most medical centers do. These types of laws are ones that everyone should be able to agree on."

"As Justice [Samuel] Alito wrote in his dissent, Kermit Gosnell's abortion house of horrors would have been closed down, and a woman's and three infants' lives would have been saved if these laws were in place in his state," she continued. "It's tragic and unjust that the Supreme Court refuses to acknowledge that abortion is a violent and brutal act against women and a horrific human rights abuse against children, stripping children of their first human right, which is life."

Pojman told CP that the court's ruling shows how important it will be to elect a president in November who will appoint only pro-life justices to the Supreme Court. As there is already a vacancy caused by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia, the next president could influence the balance on the court for years to come.

"The next president will not just have influence for four or eight years but for a generation," Pojman said. "We're going to be reminding voters how incredibly important this upcoming election is. It is probably more important from this point of view than any other election any living person has had to vote in. It is absolutely critical we have the right person in the White House to fill the current vacancy and vacancies in the foreseeable future."