Key stakeholders in women's health comment on oral arguments for Texas' omnibus antiabortion-rights law (HB 2), denounce a special House committee investigation into abortion providers and more.
"One thing was clear from the questions the justices asked today: that the facts are on the side of Whole Woman's Health and the women of Texas." -- Center for Reproductive Rights President and CEO Nancy Northup, following the oral arguments before the Supreme Court over provisions in Texas' omnibus antiabortion-rights law (HB 2). The justices likely will issue a ruling in June (Women's Health Policy Report, 3/3).
"Congress has ... no call to engage in a reckless investigation with the potential to cause a great deal of harm." -- A Washington Post editorial denouncing a special House panel tasked with investigating abortion providers (Women's Health Policy Report, 2/22). Liberal members of the committee have voiced concerned that subpoenas recently issued by the panel could endanger the safety of abortion providers and clinic staff (Women's Health Policy Report, 3/3).
"The harms of HB 2 on the 2.5 million Latinas of reproductive age in Texas are direct, documented, and disproportionate." -- Jessica González-Rojas, the executive director of the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health, in an MSNBC opinion piece on the effect Texas' omnibus antiabortion-rights law (HB 2) would have on Latina women in the state (Women's Health Policy Report, 2/29).
"The state clearly has a legitimate interest in ensuring pregnant women are fully advised of their rights and treatment options when making reproductive health care decisions and the required disclosure is undeniably related to that interest." -- District Judge John Houston, in his ruling to uphold a California law (AB 775) that aims to prohibit antiabortion-rights crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs) from spreading misinformation. Three CPCs -- the National Institute of Family and Life Advocates, Pregnancy Care Center and Fallbrook Pregnancy Resource Center -- challenged the law and sought to block its enforcement (Women's Health Policy Report, 2/17).
"The state should support medically appropriate and scientifically based health care policies, not legislation introduced with the intention of shaming, coercing or judging a woman." -- Laura Goodhue, executive director of the Florida Alliance of Planned Parenthood Affiliates, on a Florida appeals court's decision to lift a temporary injunction on a state law (HB 633) that imposes a 24-hour mandatory delay before an abortion (Women's Health Policy Report, 2/29).
"In light of the expanded number of organizations, including certain for-profit employers, that may object to providing cost-free contraception following the Hobby Lobby decision, it is essential than an effective mechanism remain in place to ensure women receive the benefit conferred on them by the (health care law) when their employers choose not to provide that coverage." -- House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and several other liberal lawmakers, in an amicus brief urging the Supreme Court to uphold an accommodation in the federal contraceptive coverage rules for not-for-profits that hold themselves out as religious and oppose contraception. The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear a consolidated lawsuit later this month challenging the accommodation (Women's Health Policy Report, 2/19).
"Misinformation is a threat to the integrity of the doctor-patient relationship and to the medical system as a whole." -- Cynthia Daniels, head of the Informed Consent Project at Rutgers University, on a study she led that found 35 percent of women who seek abortion care in the United States receive medically inaccurate information about fetal and embryonic development (Women's Health Policy Report, 3/1).
