Monday's
Supreme Court 5-3 decision striking down Texas' abortion restrictions was a "huge victory for women," Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards said, but there is still a great deal of work ahead.
"This 5-3 victory means that now women will be able to actually access safe and legal abortion in Texas, in many areas of the state, and of course that doctors who have been prevented from providing medical care will finally be able to care for women again," Richards, the daughter of former Texas Gov. Ann Richards, told
MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell on her noon news program.
Under Texas law, abortion doctors were required to have "admitting privileges" at a hospital within 30 miles of their clinics, and their buildings were required to have costly, hospital-grade facilities, with regulations covering building features such as corridor width, floor tiles, parking spaces, and even the angle of water flowing from drinking fountains.
Mitchell noted there are still 12 states with similar restrictions, and Richards said that now that SCOTUS has ruled against the Texas law, more challenges will come out.
"The laws that have been passed have nothing to do with women's health, but were in fact passed just in order to make it more difficult for women to make their own decisions," said Richards. "There is just no way to overstate what an important victory this was."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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