Marcela Howell and Marsha Jones| Austin American-Statesman

Texas abortion clinics can sue over the state's controversial ban

The Supreme Court ruled that clinics challenging a Texas abortion ban can continue to fight in lower federal courts, but permitted the law to remain.

Associated Press, USA TODAY

As we approach the 49thanniversary of Roe v. Wade, the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case legalizing abortion, Black women in Texas are not celebrating this constitutional right but fighting to keep it. Texans seeking abortion care have to drive 14 times farther than they did previously, according to an analysis of the states new abortion ban by the reproductive health research group the Guttmacher Institute. For 70 percent of the Texans seeking care, Louisiana is the closest state to obtain a legal abortion. Twenty-three percent have to travel to Oklahoma, the analysis found which, like Louisiana, has multiple abortion restrictions of its own.

And thats the case for people fortunate enough to have the money, transportation, time off from work, childcare and other resources needed to make the journey. Forcing people to go out of state is just one way that this extreme abortion ban threatens the health and rights of Texans who need timely care.

It will come as news to no one that being Black in Texas has long been fraught with disadvantages and discrimination. For Black women and pregnant people who give birth, our bodies and families continue to face unjust surveillance. New mothers who are Black are more likely to be subject to drug screenings, frequently without our knowledge or consent. Black parents are more likely to be reported to or investigated by Child Protective Services, compared to white families.

Black women are disparately likely to experience sexual violence and abuse, making the Texas bans lack of exceptions for rape or incest particularly callous and cruel for Black women. Forced births are particularly deadly for Black pregnant people in a country where Black women are three times more likely than white women to die from complications related to childbirth. Its even more perilous in Texas, which leads the country in postpartum deaths.

In a new tack, the Texas law is written so no government office or official is responsible for enforcing it, instead the law offers a bounty on people who perform or aid and abet access to abortion. Last month, a state district court judge agreed with critics of the vigilante measure. Judge David Peeples ruled the enforcement by private individuals unconstitutional.

Nonetheless, the far-reaching law banning access to abortion care after six weeks gestation, was allowed to stand by the U.S. Supreme Court. American College of Obstetrician and Gynecologists Lead for Equity Transformation Dr. Jennifer Villavicencio spoke about this restriction in The New York Times.

Forcing [people] to find out about a pregnancy and make a decision about how to manage it in a short period of time is antithetical to ethical care, said Dr. Villavicencio.

The bottom line is that abortion bans do not stop abortions; they just make abortion less safe and this is especially true for Black women. A study that looked at potential outcomes of a nationwide abortion ban found it would lead to a 21 percent increase in the number of pregnancy-related deaths overall and a 33 percent increase among Black women.

With their bright smiles reflecting the blithe confidence that comes with knowing the new law will not affect their privileged existence, on Sept. 1, 2021 conservative members of the Texas legislature and Governor Greg Abbott who cant or chooses not to understand basic human reproduction signed into law a targeted attack on the health, rights and lives of Black people. The abortion ban is a call to action and we will not stand idly by.

Howell is founder, CEO and president of In Our Own Voice: National Black Women's Reproductive Justice Agenda.

Jones is co-founder and executive director of The Afiya Center, areproductive justice organization in North Texas founded and directed by Black women.

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Commentary: Abortion ban is an attack on the lives of Black people - Austin American-Statesman