Texas To SCOTUS: ‘Let Us Keep Killing Women’

I have to admit that despite abortion being a big part of the discussion in the 2024 election this bit of news flew under my radar. However it’s a huge deal and everyone should know about it. On Monday (Sept. 30) when SCOTUS sits down for its conference they will be considering an appeal from Texas AG Ken Paxton – an appeal that in practical terms says let women in his state bleed out in parking lots of hospitals and even DIE during a miscarriage.

It used to be routine for women to get medical care that would in such circumstances allow for a procedure known as Dilation and Curettage (D&C) to preserved the health and even life of a woman suffering is miscarriage. An ‘abortion’ if you will. Since the Dobbs decision around the country doctors in Red states look at the laws and are rightly concerned about losing their medical licenses or even being prosecuted. So, women are turned away to get sick enough to be at death’s door before doctors feel they can ‘get away’ with treating them. Sometimes it’s too late.

It shouldn’t surprise anyone that Texas is a state where the legislature clamped down, HARD on abortion after Dobbs and implemented a harshly restrictive law. As in other BLOOD (use of that word intentional) red states there’s a mealy-mouthed ‘except for the health and life of the mother’ ‘exception.’ Those so-called exceptions aren’t worth the paper the laws are printed on. The message to doctors is clear – they are being watched and anti-abortion zealots in prosecutor’s office are waiting to pounce. So women go to their cars and bleed, and get sicker and maybe at some point the ER will accept them for treatment. However as I said it’s all too often too late. There are women who wind up needing hysterectomies and will never be able to bear children. And yes, some DIE.

This is the reality SCOTUS has created with the overturning of Roe. Make no mistake, every single one of the six GOP appointed Justices were chosen for the Court in large measure because the Presidents who appointed them hoped the day would come when there would be a large enough majority to decisively overturn Roe v Wade. Also, I don’t want to  hear anyone saying something like ‘Well, they probably didn’t realize it would result in THIS.’ I call bullshit. Before they even heard oral arguments in the Dobbs case they knew red states either had or were writing draconian “trigger laws” that would take effect as soon as Roe was overturned. They also, because there are women on the Court didn’t need legal filings to know practical consequences.

The six GOP zealots knew what it would mean for women all over the country. They just didn’t care!  The working assumption with them, and with the GOP writ large was that after two or three months of outrage people, the majority of Americans I should add would just “get over it” and adjust to a new reality. The 2022 midterms were a two-by-four upside the head, as were a string of Special Election and off year election losses in RED states. And even RED states put measures (some blue ones too) put abortion rights Constitutional amendments on ballots and every single one has passed.  Easily. The GOP knows it’s still a potent issue, especially as they have their anti-abortion zealots (including at least two on SCOTUS) who want to ban prescription birth control next. The LAST thing the GOP overall wants is for abortion and reproductive rights to be a significant issue this fall.

However, as this article from Rolling Stone tells us it’s about to get raised, and with early voting underway:

The state of Texas is asking the Supreme Court to allow it to continue denying emergency medical care to pregnant women, pretty please. The request, which the justices will consider at conference on Monday, September 30, comes on the heels of a new report that shows the state’s maternal mortality rate has spiked dramatically since the state’s first ban on abortion went into effect in 2021.

I’d say Paxton would be singing a different tune in an ER if his daughter was bleeding out and needed treatment for a miscarriage but I don’t believe for a second he would. He is so cold and heartless he’d let his own child DIE rather than back down. THAT friends it the type of person the GOP gives power to. Worse, there are plenty more Ken Paxton’s out there. Now, he can try to explain away what’s happening in his state but actual facts/statistics tell the story:

Across the United States, maternal mortality rose 11 percent between 2019 to 2022; in Texas, over the same period, the maternal death rate surged 56 percent, according to an analysis of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data conducted by the Gender Equity Policy Institute.

“There’s only one explanation for this staggering difference in maternal mortality,” Nancy L. Cohen, the institute’s president, told NBC News. “All the research points to Texas’ abortion ban as the primary driver of this alarming increase.”

Again, this is NOT an issue most Republicans want people talking about. They want immigration (another hobby-horse of Paxton) and inflation to be the focus.  Hell, they wish Trump would STFU on abortion! But Paxton has chosen to push this and he’s gotten his wish. I’m pretty sure if it’s not been talked about lately, the SCOTUS conference on Monday is going to get a pretty fair amount of news coverage. After all,  it’s not the first time they’ve confronted this.

In Idaho they faced a similar case where DHS said they had to follow established medical practice.  Initially SCOTUS seemed to side with the Idaho zealots, but this past June took a Mulligan:

Last year, a lower court halted, in part, enforcement of the Idaho ban, allowing emergency abortions at hospitals if needed to protect the health of the mother. Shortly thereafter, the Supreme Court intervened to block that decision, preventing doctors from treating their patients, in some cases forcing them to fly those patients to a neighboring state for treatment. In June, a majority of justices admitted the court should not have gotten involved in the case prematurely, dismissing the case and allowing doctors to begin providing emergency abortions in Idaho again.

I’m sure Sammy ‘the Slime’ Alito was beside himself back in June. But clearly conservatives on SCOTUS chose to back down. And that was when it still looked like it would be Biden vs. Trump. You think they weren’t worried abortion could flare up as a dominant issue and swing the election to Biden?  I sure do. Paxton however is spoiling for a fight, and since women in Texas and elsewhere are suffering and dying in numbers that are already horrifying (who knows what the Butcher’s Bill will turn out to be someday?) Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar is obliging him. She’s asked SCOTUS to take up the case and overrule the Fifth Circuit ruling that Paxton wants upheld.

We won’t get a decision right away. However unless I’m mistaken as I said earlier it IS going to be in the news. Complete with discussion about comparisons to the Idaho case (Moyle) and the six GOP operatives in robes in the SCOTUS building again find themselves sitting on the hot seat. One of their own creation which is why I have NO sympathy for them. However they aren’t going to like the criticism that’s sure to come their way.  No, they won’t like it one bit. It comes with the territory and that’s long been the case but conservative Justices are increasingly outspoken about how “unfair” it is that they are catching hell. So it’s clearly getting to them.

Sadly, tragically even as I said we won’t learn what they decide to do for a while. Maybe a long while. Meanwhile, women in Texas will sit in their cars in ER parking lots suffering. Bleeding. Even dying because the doctors are afraid to give them what used to be standard, common medical care for a miscarriage. OUTRAGE should be a major theme this week – linked to that Monday SCOTUS conference.

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