On April 11, Texas Abortion Providers asked the United States Supreme Court to take emergency action to restore essential, time-sensitive medication abortion services while the case proceeds. While Texas Abortion Providers’ intentions are in the right place, they are putting Roe v. Wade at risk of being overturned.
The President appoints Supreme Court justices with approval of the Senate. The Supreme Court leans on the more conservative side of the aisle with five Republicans and four Democrats, leaving the understanding for the 1970 court decision wide open for interpretation.
Despite the action taken to stop Abbott’s Executive Order from both the Federal and Circuit courts, it prevailed. While Gov. Abbott’s executive order temporarily suspends abortion procedures, Texas Abortion Providers—represented by the Center for Reproductive Rights, the Lawyering Project, and Planned Parenthood Federation of America—should not have taken such drastic action in a time of extreme political divide.
In 2014, a similar debacle occurred between Planned Parenthood and Abbott. Planned Parenthood filed a lawsuit to block harmful and unconstitutional provisions of a then-recent Texas law, which would have forced a third of the health centers that currently offered abortion care to stop providing abortions altogether, also known as Texas House Bill 2. The case took about eight months before the Supreme Court refused to block the Texas abortion law.
Another notable similarity is the Center for Reproductive Rights and Planned Parenthood Federation of America who was both signees of this lawsuit then and now. Abbott and other Republican officials have made it their career to end abortion and stop it how they see fit.
Planned Parenthood runs the risk of losing safe, accessible abortion for all Texas women to a fairly conservative panel of justices.
The only thing that may save this misstep is Chief Justice John Roberts, who was appointed by George W. Bush in 2005. Despite his conservative party alignment, Roberts has emerged as the Supreme Court’s new swing vote.
Last February, Roberts sided with four liberals, which blocked a restrictive Louisiana abortion law from taking effect. Another notable court case appeared in 2016 when he joined two other conservatives in a 5-3 decision to strike down similar regulations targeting abortion doctors in Texas. This was a year after he began to fall out of favor with his Republican colleagues, with his approval rating at an all-time low.
Planned Parenthood should not rely on Roberts as saving grace. They have put the constitutionality of abortion in jeopardy.
While Planned Parenthood has good intentions, they are merely pursuing a fight that they are likely to lose. The current Supreme Court does not embody the same ideologies as the 2014 Supreme Court.
– Amira Van Leeuwen is a journalism sophomore