When the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, it claimed to be removing the judiciary from the abortion debate. In reality, it simply gave the courts a macabre new task: deciding how far states can push a patient toward death before allowing her to undergo an emergency abortion.

On Tuesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit offered its own answer, declaring that Texas may prohibit hospitals from providing “stabilizing treatment” to pregnant patients by performing an abortion—withholding the procedure until their condition deteriorates to the point of grievous injury or near-certain death.

The ruling proves what we already know: Roe’s demise has transformed the judiciary into a kind of death panel that holds the power to elevate the potential life of a fetus over the actual life of a patient.

  • @aidanM
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    -511 months ago

    Roe’s demise has transformed the judiciary into a kind of death panel that holds the power to elevate the potential life of a fetus over the actual life of a patient.

    I don’t see this as shocking? Courts have had the power of life or death since, you know, the death penalty.

    • Chetzemoka
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      fedilink
      1611 months ago

      Show me where pregnant women are being given anything remotely resembling a trial by jury and due process of law before being sentenced to death.

      • @aidanM
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        010 months ago

        Show me where since the recent supreme court decision, a mother was explicitly denied an abortion and then died as a result of birth. It may have happened, but I haven’t seen anything about it