Yesterday the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled against Planned Parenthood and upheld the constitutionality of certain provisions in HB2, the landmark Pro-Life law that passed last summer despite loud but ineffective minority opposition among abortion advocates. Planned Parenthood has repeatedly taken issue with the bill, which has hurt its bottom line and led to the closures of numerous abortion facilities around the state. In the case decided yesterday by the 5th Circuit ruling, Planned Parenthood’s claim that key provisions of HB2 posed an “undue burden” on women and abortionists was soundly put to rest.
Yesterday’s ruling upheld two components of HB2 that were designed specifically to safeguard women’s health. Although the central provision of the bill, a ban on abortions past 20 weeks of pregnancy (the point from which science has firmly established the presence of fetal pain during an abortion), has not been taken into question by the abortion conglomerate, Planned Parenthood has attacked HB2’s woman-focused provisions. These include the requirement that abortionists obtain admitting privileges at a nearby hospital and insistence that FDA protocol be followed with the administration of the dangerous RU-486 abortion drug.
That Planned Parenthood has taken issue with the provisions specifically designed to safeguard women’s health, and not with the fetal pain provision of HB2, suggests that Planned Parenthood’s fight is not a deeply-seated ideology in favor of women’s rights and health. These are rather business interests that aim to make money at the expense of women. Despite its cutely crafted argument that requiring admitting privileges poses an undue burden to women, Planned Parenthood works against women’s health when it opposes the maternal health provisions found in HB2. Planned Parenthood’s opposition lays bare the organization’s true motive, to protect its bottom line.
Pro-Lifers have definitively proven themselves to be the advocates of women’s health in Texas. The real “war on women” is coming not from the conservative, Pro-Life majority in Texas, but from radical special interest groups like Planned Parenthood. In fact, the three-judge panel that determined the constitutionality of HB2 yesterday was comprised entirely of women – women defending Texas women against the antics of Planned Parenthood and the like.
Planned Parenthood has demonstrated time and again its lack of regard for women’s well-being by failing to meet safety standards at its clinics and by consistently siding with coercive and oppressive forces in the lives of vulnerable, abortion-minded women. Planned Parenthood’s love affair with profits was once again reiterated when the organization was caught red-handed with $1.4 million of stolen taxpayer money in a Medicaid fraud case. Planned Parenthood’s attacks on women’s health provisions in HB2 echo its priorities, at the top of which is money.
