The Democrat lawmaker who sponsored the Louisiana abortion health and safety law that was struck down by the Supreme Court Monday condemned the ruling, saying, “unelected justices have substituted their policy preferences over the clear will of the people of my great state.”
State Sen. Katrina Jackson said in a video message, “As long as the Supreme Court continues to meddle in an area that rightfully belongs in the democratic process, women will remain subject to substandard abortion facilities.”
Voices of other pro-life black Americans were added to the chorus of criticism in the wake of the Court’s majority decision.
A National Center for Public Policy Research’s Project 21 Black Leadership Network statement noted the Court is “signaling that not all black lives matter.”
Stacy Washington, Project 21 co-chairman, observed the importance of health and safety requirements for abortion clinics, especially in light of those facilities that have been enabled to escape scrutiny as they claim such regulations provide “undue burden” to access abortion.
The Louisiana law would have required abortionists to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals to facilitate continuity of care in the event of emergencies.
“With this ruling, the Supreme Court has affirmed that abortion in the United States is no longer safe, legal or rare,” said Project 21 Co-Chairman Stacy Washington, adding that “historians will look on this ruling with the same disdain as prior Supreme Court rulings that upheld slavery – incorrect and incomprehensible.”
Washington added regarding the Court’s decision in June Medical Services v. Russo:
Where I live in Missouri, the Planned Parenthood clinic has defied local safety regulations, operating without a license after refusing to permit its doctors to answer for dozens of ambulance response calls to their facility. The Louisiana abortion safety law would have required doctors performing abortions to have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital.
Project 21 states it promotes the views of black Americans “whose entrepreneurial spirit, dedication to family and commitment to individual responsibility have not traditionally been echoed by the nation’s civil rights establishment.”
The project was organized by the pro-life Radiance Foundation, with its creative officer Ryan Bomberger, and with input from Civil Rights for the Unborn, the National Black Pro-Life Union, the Frederick Douglass Foundation and the Douglass Leadership Institute.
Project 21 filed a legal brief with the Supreme Court that argued against overturning “a substantial medical benefit that justifies any minimal burden” and one that would prevent abortionists from avoiding oversight and safety requirements.
Member Donna Jackson also said, “It’s a sad day when the Supreme Court rules against the preservation of life.”
She continued:
With this decision, it is signaling that not all black lives matter. The abortion lobby’s fight against the most reasonable health and medical standards shows that its priorities lie with killing unborn black babies at any cost. This decision reveals the radical left’s willingness to make unsafe, back alley-style abortions mainstream, without regard to the health and welfare of black mothers.
Marie Fischer, also a Project 21 member, explained:
The Louisiana bill was not crafted by conservative white men as many seem to think, but by a pro-life liberal who is black and female. State Representative Katrina Jackson, now a state senator, said she created this bill because there are laws on the books in Louisiana and many other states requiring any doctor performing any kind of surgery at an outpatient facility to have hospital admitting privileges. This even stands for something as simple as removing a mole or a wart. Why should abortion be any different? Why should a procedure as invasive as abortion be treated differently?
“I would like to see the day when abortion is held up to the same scrutiny as all other surgical procedures,” she asserted. “This reveals a true war on women. And since more black children are victims of abortion, it also shows only certain black lives matter.”
In his dissent, Justice Clarence Thomas wrote, “Today a majority of the Court perpetuates its ill-founded abortion jurisprudence by enjoining a perfectly legitimate state law and doing so without jurisdiction.”
Thomas said prior Court decisions on the right to abortion were “created … out of whole cloth, without a shred of support from the Constitution’s text.”