Mark S. DeFrancesco, MD, MBA, President of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), released the following statement regarding today’s arguments in Whole Women’s Health v. Hellerstedt:The outcome of the Supreme Court’s decision in Whole Women’s Health v. Hellerstedt has the potential to impact millions of women across the country. After all, it is estimated that one in three women of reproductive age will have an abortion in her life.
“s women’s health physicians, we fundamentally believe that in order to keep abortion safe, we must keep it both legal and accessible. Without question, allowing state governments to impose restrictions that are not medically necessary will only make it harder for women to access the safe abortion care that they need.
Barriers to care – under the guise of concerns about patient safety – are bad medicine. Women in need of abortion should not be forced to burden themselves and their families in order to get the health care that is right for them. Other needed forms of health care are not subject to these unfounded restrictions and attacks.
We made clear in our amicus brief that abortion is already a very safe procedure, that the restrictions at the heart of HB2 will not make it safer, and that they are actually harmful to women in Texas. We hope that members of the Court will give preference to our medical opinion when making their deliberations. The health of millions of women is at stake.
The countries leading group of OB/GYNs is against the case, so much so that they filed an amicus brief.
The real crime here is that opposition to HB2 by those who do the research and see the patients, i.e. those who are actually in the position know, matters little to many politicians.
Let’s hope it matters to the Supreme Court.
Dr. Jen Gunter 
Interesting summary on how things are going: http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/supreme_court_dispatches/2016/03/in_oral_arguments_for_the_texas_abortion_case_the_three_female_justices.html
We can only hope…