Supporters of abortion rights, including New York State Attorney General Letitia James, argue the government on both the state and federal levels are using the pandemic as a backdoor way to stifle access to abortion services.
James spoke with Capital Tonight’s Susan Arbetter earlier on Wednesday.
“There are some states like Texas, Ohio, Mississippi and Alabama, they basically issued bans, saying that abortion services are non-essential,” said James. “As a result of that, abortions are not available in their states.”
On Tuesday, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s Executive Order barring medical procedures during the pandemic deemed not immediately necessary. Those procedures include abortions.
CNBC reports Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has said the executive order applies to all abortions, with the exception of those which protect the life of the mother, as well as the so-called “abortion pill”.
The penalty in Texas for violating the order is $1,000 or 180 days of jail time. James told Spectrum that Planned Parenthood, the Center for Reproductive Rights and the Lawyering Project have filed a lawsuit against Texas.
A district court in Texas agreed with Planned Parenthood, stating that the ban was unconstitutional.
“And then I, along with 19 other attorney generals, I led the way, we filed an amicus brief, basically to strike down that ban, deeming reproductive services are an essential service that should be provided to all women and that government should not use this pandemic as an excuse, and/or to infringe upon the rights of women.”
The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to weigh in on the case. States aren’t the only level of government using the pandemic in ways that will curtail access to abortion. The Trump administration is “reinterpreting” a rule under the Affordable Care Act that would change how abortion is viewed by insurance.
One change would allow employers to object to providing reproductive services in their insurance policies. James, along with eight other attorneys general filed an amicus brief Wednesday in the U.S. Supreme Court supporting the state of Pennsylvania in its fight against this change.
“We do not believe that employers should be in a position to determine reproductive rights for women,” James explained.
New York also joined with California to fight against another result of the Trump administration’s ACA changes.
“We are arguing that the rule being created by this administration to set up a billing practice that would separate out reproductive services from all other healthcare services is very problematic. I’s also very expensive. There are administrative costs to it,” said James.