February 26, 2016 12:21 PM UTC

What You Need to Know About the Abortion Rights Case at SCOTUS Next Week

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• by: ProChoiceCO

(Promoted by Colorado Pols)

On Wednesday, March 2, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in  Whole Women’s Health v. Hellerstedt. This is the case that will decide whether or not to uphold Texas’ anti-choice TRAP laws. The Court’s decision is expected to be announced in June.

TRAP laws are designed to make it impossible for women to access abortion care by regulating it out of existence. It doesn’t matter if abortion is technically legal if doctors can’t perform them thanks to medically-unnecessary laws and women have to drive hundreds of miles in order to obtain one.

As pointed out in the New York Times, “it’s telling that today’s abortion opponents have dusted off the word ‘‘protection’’ to justify regulations that are shutting down clinics across the country… There’s no phrase for men equivalent to ‘‘damsel in distress’’ and no such thing as ‘‘protective’’ legislation for men… By causing clinics to close, and thus forcing women to travel longer distances to have abortions, the law has delayed, and in some cases blocked women’s access to the procedure. Both outcomes jeopardize women’s health.’’

You can see the NARAL Pro-Choice America video on TRAP laws here.

Or just take it from comedian John Oliver on HBO.

And as described in NARAL Pro-Choice Colorado’s opposition report Against Our Will: How National Groups are Targeting the Pro-Choice Majority in Colorado, we’ve seen these same TRAP laws attempted by these same groups over and over in Colorado. And we will see them again in the 2016 General Assembly.

So we’ll be paying close attention to what happens next Wednesday. And you should be too.