U.S. Supreme Court to Review Texas Law to Shut Down Clinics

PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Marcela Howell, 202-841-3292, marcela@blackrj.org

(November 13, 2015) – The U.S. Supreme Court, today, agreed to review a Texas law designed to shut down clinics that provide safe, legal abortion services. The case, Whole Woman’s Health v. Cole, was brought by Center for Reproductive Rights on behalf of a coalition of women’s healthcare providers to stop an anti-abortion law (HB2) that places medically unnecessary regulations on clinics in Texas that provide abortions.

“Politicians developed these medically unnecessary laws as a way of sneaking around the constitution and preventing women from accessing legal health services,” said Marcela Howell, founder and executive director of In Our Own Voice: National Black Women’s Reproductive Justice Agenda. “These laws harm women, especial low-income women, women of color, young women and immigrant women.”

No one can fully know the circumstances of a woman facing a decision to end a pregnancy, and no one else can make that decision for her.  Based on a national survey conducted by In Our Own Voice, 80 percent of Black women and men agree when asked “regardless of how I personally feel about abortion, I believe it should remain legal and women should be able to get safe abortions.” In Our Own Voice stands with the Black women in Texas and will fight along side them to ensure that all women are able to exercise their own personal autonomy and make the decisions that are best for them and their families.

“When it comes to abortion, we trust Black women, all women, to make the important personal decisions that are best for themselves and their families,” added Howell. “This is the first step by the court in ensuring that politicians stop playing politics with women’s lives.”

In Our Own Voice: National Black Women’s Reproductive Justice Agenda is a national organization that seeks to highlight the voices of Black women at the national and state levels, on the issues of abortion rights and access, contraceptive equity and comprehensive sex education.

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To interview Marcela Howell, contact 202-841-3292.