Washington, DC - Select Investigative Panel Chairman Marsha Blackburn issued the following statement in response to the Supreme Court’s decision today in Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt:
“As the Select Investigative Panel strives to do its work in the people’s House, the Supreme Court handed down an unfortunate decision today in Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt. The challenged law, H. B. 2, was passed by the elected representatives of the people of Texas who were concerned about the callous treatment of both the unborn and their mothers. Horrified by the revelations of the abhorrent practices at Kermit Gosnell’s clinic, the Texas legislature passed H. B. 2 to ensure that nothing of the kind would occur in the Lone Star State. Unfortunately, the Court would not allow even this modest modicum of decency to stand, preferring instead to ignore the will of the people of Texas.
“Despite the Constitution’s silence on abortion, the Court has fueled controversy by taking so much of the issue away from the people. The Court’s rulings have, without justification, set a double standard-one that allows elected representatives to set standards for medical facilities in every other context, as has been the case in our country for generations, and one that makes the Court a de facto medical board when the procedure involved is abortion.
“Meanwhile, many of the same people who demand that the Court continue to control this area of law also object to the important work our Panel has been tasked with. At every turn the Panel’s investigation is revealing that the intent of the Texas legislature is justified because the abortion industry has placed money above the safety of women and unborn children. We will not flinch from our duty to do what we can to ensure respect for human life at its most vulnerable. To ignore an issue of such gravity would be to diminish our democratically elected institutions of government and to abdicate the most basic obligations of humanity. It is a sad irony, and a distortion of our constitutional system, that those who want to shut down the Panel would deny the proper role the people have in our representative democracy and instead advocate that unelected, life-tenured justices control this entire area of law by fiat."
