Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi cheered the Supreme Court’s Monday decision to strike down “discriminatory” abortion standards in Texas as a blow against Republican attempts to limit women’s rights.
Reid, D-Nev., called the Texas law requiring higher medical standards at abortion clinics a “sham law enacted by the state of Texas solely to limit women’s rights and restrict access to healthcare.”
“Today, the Supreme Court struck down a brazen attempt to limit women’s access to the comprehensive healthcare guaranteed them by the Constitution,” said Pelosi, D-Calif. “This ruling is an important victory for the rights of America’s women, but many challenges remain.”
The high court voted 5-3 to strike down a portion of the law, arguing that the higher standards were not medically needed and created an “undue burden” on access to abortion.
Some Republicans condemned the ruling.
Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., said the ruling will ultimately hurt women.
“By caving to the demands of abortion extremists who seek to normalize the ending of an innocent human life in the womb regardless of the dangers, the Supreme Court has left almost no room for common sense and simple decency in our nation’s approach to abortion,” Cotton said in a statement.
