Today's Supreme Court Ruling Is About Much More Than Keeping Abortion Clinics Open
I'm still reeling from the news, still wiping the tears from my eyes. Every day, our team at Whole Woman's Health treats our patients with compassion, respect, and dignity - and today the Supreme Court did the same. Though I was in Washington, D.C., as the decision was handed down, I swear I could hear the chanting all the way from Austin, Texas: "Our clinics STAY open!" Just now, I got off the phone from a group conference call with all eight of our Whole Woman's clinic sites across the country where we had a collective cheer, a collective sigh, and a virtual group toast.
But keeping clinics open and accessible to our communities is just the foundation (or ground), not the sky - it's the most basic standard we have when it comes to our patients, and frankly, it should be a given. Our patients deserve so much more: impeccable facilities; high-quality service; compassionate care that understands and respects their cultural and religious beliefs; and staff that speak their preferred language and take the time to listen. That's exactly what we strive to provide. And with House Bill 2 out of the way, the road is open for us to seek that gold standard, without political interference, where we care for the Whole Woman, mind, body, and heart.
In 1973, the landmark Supreme Court case Roe v. Wade made abortion legal in all 50 states and ended an era of unsafe, illegal abortion where women were literally dying due to draconian abortion bans. This important decision is the foundation on which today's victory was built. But much has changed since Roe, and today's decision has made clear that it's not enough for abortion to be technically and simply legal; it must be accessible in real life. We must have clinics in our communities that provide the quality, compassionate care each of us deserves.
When Texas politicians passed H.B. 2 three years ago, they caused the closing of more than half of the state's abortion clinics. This put a tremendous burden on Texas women, forcing thousands to travel long distances, take (mostly unpaid) leave from work, and find transportation and childcare, all of which needed to coincide perfectly with whatever appointments they were fortunate enough to get.
Today, the Supreme Court recognized that shutting down community clinics and forcing women to travel to the few and far away clinics that remained not only failed to improve women's health (as H.B. 2's supporters disingenuously claimed) but actually may compromise care. In his majority opinion, Justice Breyer wrote, "Texas seeks to force women to travel long distances to get abortions in crammed-to-capacity superfacilities. Patients seeking these services are less likely to get the kind of individualized attention, serious conversation, and emotional support that doctors at less taxed facilities may have offered."
While we have proudly upheld our standard of care even under the burdens of H.B. 2, there's no question that having more clinics open is better for women. In fact, we hope that easing the strain on clinics might allow even more providers to adopt models like our own.
In 2003, Whole Woman's Health made a commitment to provide quality and holistic reproductive health care to all Texans. This is a commitment we take seriously: from the one-on-one counseling we provide to patients to the comforting yet empowering ambience we strive to create in every single room at our clinics. Our lavender walls feature powerful images and inspiring quotes from the likes of Sandra Cisneros, Patti LaBelle, and Eleanor Roosevelt. We provide our patients with fleece blankets, herbal tea, a supportive shoulder, and an open heart. Everything we do, every last detail puts our patients at the center. When we say that Whole Woman's Health is a woman-owned and woman-centered organization, committed to providing holistic health care for women, those aren't just nice words to go on our letterhead. They mean something. To us, those words are a sacred trust and commitment to our patients.
While abortion is an extremely safe medical procedure (as many of the justices were quick to point out in their opinion striking down H.B. 2), it also happens to be disproportionately stigmatized. Each one of our patients has a different story, and we often meet women at complicated places and times in their lives. Although our model of care is designed to lessen the stigma surrounding abortion, to provide comfort and support to our patients, laws like H.B. 2 do the opposite. By setting abortion and those of us who provide it apart from other medical procedures, these laws enhance the stigma and secrecy that many women face when trying to access care. And, instead of making abortion safer, the added restrictions and regulations insult women's intelligence and dishonor their decision-making processes.
Women come to us from many walks of life. They are mothers, students, artists, people of all faiths, young and middle-aged, from rural areas and big cities. What they share is that they have made the decision to end a pregnancy. And what they receive from us is care that treats them with the complete measure of individuality, respect, and dignity they deserve.
Yes, we have stood up against politicians who try to push abortion out of reach, and we'll keep doing so. We stood in opposition to H.B. 2, and we will continue to oppose any law like it that shuts down clinics, forces women to delay care, or creates obstacles to abortion.
But we also stand for something: We stand up to affirm that women are good and moral and kind. That when a woman has decided to end a pregnancy, we can witness her story and play a small role in comforting her fears, and supporting her dreams and her aspirations.
This is about more than keeping our clinics open, this is about keeping our arms open for women who come to us as they are for the care they need. This is about keeping our hearts open to their stories, struggles, and triumphs. This is about affirming that each woman deserves to choose her own path, and honoring that decision with respect and dignity.
Amy Hagstrom Miller is the founder and CEO of Whole Woman's Health, the lead plaintiff in the landmark case Whole Woman's Health v. Hellerstedt.
Follow Amy on Twitter.
