More Than A Magazine, A Movement
This Wednesday, March 4, the Supreme Court will hear arguments in the Louisiana case June v. Russo, in which the court will once again review an unnecessary state law that requires doctors performing abortions to have hospital admitting privileges near their clinic.
As an immigrant woman, I am proud to have raised my own child in the United States. I know that to achieve true access to abortion, we need a government that works on solutions that reflect the needs of families like mine.
What June v. Gee will come down to is the integrity of our institutions.
About 200 organizations and 700 individuals filed 27 legal briefs in June v. Gee, an abortion case before the Supreme Court, on December 2. One brief—filed by the Feminist Majority Foundation, NOW, the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Women’s Law Project—showcases how TRAP laws, in a climate of violence and harassment against abortion providers, force clinics to close.
If the law before the Supreme Court is allowed to stand, Louisiana will become the seventh state in the U.S. left with only one abortion provider—as a best-case scenario—and anti-abortion politicians across the country will be emboldened to pass more restrictions, leading to more clinic closures and pushing abortion access entirely out of reach for many women.
The announcement that the Supreme Court is taking up June Medical Services v. Gee proves two things about the new ultra-conservative Court bench: that it has an utter disregard for any sort of standing legal precedent, and that it clearly views itself as yet another partisan body rather than an independent branch of the government. Both spell disaster for the future right to bodily autonomy of those who are able to get pregnant in the South.