Townhall reported this week how the Texas Supreme Court allowed a pre-Roe law banning abortion in the state to resume. Previously, a judge blocked the law from taking effect. In states like Texas, legal challenges have arisen after the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade and pro-life trigger laws took effect. The pro-life victory in Texas is putting one of the state's major abortion providers out of business.
Abortion provider Whole Woman's Health will reportedly close all clinics in Texas. The news was first reported by Axios. Whole Woman's Health's website lists four clinics in Texas; Austin, Forth Worth, McKinney and McAllen.
Whole Woman's Health said it will pack up and move its Texas clinics to New Mexico, which has less restrictive abortion laws. Axios noted that the company is asking the public for financial help to set up shop in New Mexico. The organization's website links to a GoFundMe page to raise $750,000 for the move. So far, it has raised about $60,000.
Moving to New Mexico "will allow us to provide first- and second-trimester abortions to people from Texas, Oklahoma, Arizona and elsewhere in the South where safe, legal abortion care is restricted," Whole Woman's Health wrote on the fundraising page.
"Abortion access in the South will only get worse as the damage done by this awful ruling continues to compound, and more conservative states pass abortion bans. We are stepping up to ensure everyone has a trusted independent abortion provider as nearby as legally possible," the organization added.
Whole Woman's Health also has clinics in Maryland, Minnesota, Virginia and Indiana. The organization was at the center of lawsuits last year challenging Texas' "heartbeat" abortion ban, which outlawed the procedure after fetal cardiac activity was detected. This occurs at nearly six weeks gestation, before many women know that they are pregnant.
The "heartbeat" law, S.B. 8, was blocked by an Obama-appointed district judge about a month after it took effect. Whole Woman's Health, who challenged the law, quickly resumed abortions before the law was put back into effect later that same week.
The United States Supreme Court fast-tracked two hearings for the case, Whole Woman's Health v. Jackson and United States v. Texas, which challenged the six-week ban. Both cases were heard on Nov. 1.
In the Supreme Court's ruling a month later, the justices allowed the law to stand. A separate case brought forth by the Department of Justice over the Texas law was shot down by the Court.
Days later, SCOTUS officially returned the abortion clinics' case back to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in Louisiana. The case was heard by the Fifth Circuit in January. It then made its way to the Texas Supreme Court.
Another abortion provider, Jackson Women's Health Organization, which is based in Mississippi, also plans to move to New Mexico. JWHO was the abortion clinic at the center of the Supreme Court case that overturned Roe and Planned Parenthood v. Casey.
NPR reported that clinic owner Diane Derzis said "they will not stop helping women get abortions."
