On June 27, Texas abortion providers were handed a major victory when, in a 5-3 vote, the Supreme Court overturned restrictions passed as part of House Bill 2 in 2013 that required all Texas facilities performing abortions to meet hospital-like standards. The Supreme Court ruled that abortion restrictions outlined by Texas’ House Bill 2 place an undue burden on a woman’s constitutional right to an abortion. National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum (NAPAWF) Executive Director Miriam Yeung released the following statement in response:
“National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum applauds the Supreme Court’s decision to protect women’s rights and access to vital health care in the largest abortion case of our generation. With this positive ruling, the one in 20 women of reproductive age in Texas who are Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) will have a much greater chance of receiving the health care they need.
“HB2, which placed medically unnecessary restrictions on abortion-providing health centers, threatened to shut down all but nearly 10 centers in a state of over 5 million women of reproductive age, making it impossible for most women to access adequate and timely abortion care. Texas is home to the third largest AAPI community in the country. These challenges were exacerbated by financial and linguistic barriers that the AAPI community already faces.
“Cutting off crucial health care and putting politicians in between women and their doctors denies us our dignity and creates a patchwork of rights. It creates additional obstacles for the one in eight AAPI women in Texas who are already living in poverty, who then have to navigate a health care system that does not respect their right to adequate health care and reproductive freedoms. Thankfully, this Supreme Court decision today means that low-income women, women of color, and immigrant women will have better access to the health care they need.
“While we are encouraged that the Supreme Court stood up to politically-motivated attacks on reproductive justice, there is much more to do. We will continue our fight until all women have access to the health care and resources to we need to make our own reproductive health decisions and raise our families with dignity — regardless of where we live.”
