Hoyer Statement on SCOTUS Oral Arguments on the Texas Abortion Ban

Statement

House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (MD) released the following statement today on the Supreme Court hearing oral arguments in the United States v. Texas and Whole Women's Health v. Jackson cases:

"As we have seen since the Supreme Court allowed Texas law S.B. 8 to come into effect on September 1, the Constitutional rights of women across that state have been denied as their access to health care has been curtailed. We know that S.B. 8 has already, in just two months, had a substantially negative effect on access. Women who can afford to travel out of state to seek reproductive health care are doing so in staggering numbers, while those who are unable to afford to do so are left with few to no options. Those affected are primarily low-income and minority women, many of whom rely on reproductive care clinics, which are shutting their doors as a result of S.B. 8, for their full range of primary health care services.

"State laws designed to circumvent Constitutional rights and the process of judicial review by our courts, such as S.B. 8, cannot be permitted to stand. We are already seeing copycat legislation being advanced in other states in a similar effort to deny Americans their Constitutional rights. I hope the justices, in hearing oral arguments in these cases, will act swiftly to reinstate the injunction that blocked implementation of S.B. 8 until further Supreme Court review, and I further call on them to continue upholding women's ability to exercise their Constitutional rights as it considers cases challenging the longstanding precedent set by Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey."

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