Last year, abortion extremists appealed to the Supreme Court of the United States after a saga of successive failures to overturn or weaken House Bill 2, the Pro-Life Omnibus Bill of the 2013 Legislative Session. Abortion businesses affected by the law petitioned the Supreme Court to hear their case after exhausting state-level recourse. SCOTUS, in turn, agreed to hear the plaintiff’s argument against the constitutionality of HB 2 and the State’s defense of the law.
The abortion industry, unsurprisingly, proved that they were walking on tenuous ground during opening arguments, when their flimsy position that HB 2 poses an “undue burden” to abortion was scrutinized even by Justice Anthony Kennedy – a swing vote on the court who is typically viewed as a moderate. Justice Kennedy’s posture toward the plaintiff allowed observers to posit that the Court may rest on a split 4-4 decision in the absence of the ninth Justice, Pro-Life Justice Antonin Scalia, who passed away suddenly in February. If the Court’s decision is tied, HB 2 will be ruled constitutional and allowed to remain in-effect in Texas; however, a split decision (as opposed to a majority 5-4 decision) will not set precedent as a ruling affecting the nation at large.
HB 2 ensures basic health and safety standards for Texas women undergoing abortion. A majority of Texas abortion mills were unwilling or unable to comply with the most basic safety standards enforced by HB 2 and engaged in an onslaught of state-level lawsuits and appeals – all of which ultimately resulted in rulings affirming the constitutionality of HB 2 and the State’s interest in protecting Texas women from the clearly predatory modus operandi of Big Abortion.
Texas Right to Life is hearing that the Supreme Court will likely wait until they’re up against summer recess – in late June – to rule on HB 2. SCOTUS may also release their HB 2 ruling on the same day they release a ruling on the Little Sisters of the Poor case regarding religious liberty and the provision of contraceptives and abortifacients via employer-provided insurance programs.