releases: http://jacksonlee.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/texas-hb2-law-intrudes-on-the-dignity-liberty-and-personal-decision
Data license: MIT · Data source: dwillis/congress-press
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| http://jacksonlee.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/texas-hb2-law-intrudes-on-the-dignity-liberty-and-personal-decision | TEXAS HB2 LAW INTRUDES ON THE DIGNITY, LIBERTY, AND PERSONAL DECISION-MAKING OF WOMEN AND IT IS BLATANTLY UNCONSTITUTIONAL | 2015-11-13 | 2015 | 2015-11 | Democrat | House | TX | Sheila Jackson Lee | J000032 | jacksonlee.house.gov | legacy | Washington, DC Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, a Senior Member of the House Judiciary Committee, released the following statement regarding the Supreme Court announcing today that it will hear a challenge to key parts of Texas' 2013 abortion law that pro-abortion rights groups say is one of the strictest in the nation: For more than forty years, the Supreme Court has said the constitution protects a womans right to make her own decisions about her health and family. Now the Court must reject political schemes to prevent women from acting on these personal decisions. These laws have been developed by politicians who are sneaking around the constitution to end abortion by preventing women from accessing legal health services. Playing politics with women's health is not just wrong, it is dangerous. Closing clinics in our communities, especially in Texas, will not end the need for abortionit forces women to take matters into their own hands. We cannot leave our daughters with fewer rights than their mothers and grandmothersit is time the Supreme Court reaffirm our nations commitment to womens basic dignity. When women make their own reproductive choices, they lead healthier lives and are able plan for their career and their livelihoods. Laws, like the one in Texas, that attempt to deprive women of these choices endanger us. For years, anti-choice activists have tried to overturn Roe vs. Wade and strip women of their fundamental rights. Those efforts have failed, because most Americans trust women to make our own decisions about when and with whom we have families. These deceptive laws, designed to close clinics, exist in forty-four states and the District of Columbia, so make no mistake this is not just about Texas. It is about undermining the fundamental human rights of women all over this country. Texas is the second largest state in the U.S. in land mass and population, and this law threatens to take the number of clinics down from 19 to just 10 clinics for 5.4 million women of reproductive age. If the Supreme Court fails to act, a woman in El Paso would have to drive more than 500 milesor 7.5 hours roundtrip to San Antonio to get abortion care in her home state. This case should not exist. The Texas law on which is it based is an outright attack on women and a shameless effort to ban nearly all abortions in Texas. That being said, the Court now has the opportunity to decide whether we will continue to allow elected officials to play politics with womens health. This case represents the greatest threat to womens reproductive freedom since the Supreme Court decided Roe vs. Wade over 40 years ago. Laws like the ones being challenged in Texas are designed to subvert the Constitution and end the right to a safe and legal abortion. ### | 1 | 2026-03-30T12:14:52Z | 2026-03-30T12:14:52Z |