RICHMOND (November 1, 2021) – Ahead of oral arguments that will be heard this morning in front of the U.S. Supreme Court in the cases of United States of America v. State of Texas et al., and Whole Woman’s Health et al. v. Jackson et al. that seek to block the unconstitutional Texas abortion ban, Attorney General Mark R. Herring issued the below statement:

“I hope that today the Supreme Court does the right thing by blocking this blatantly unconstitutional abortion ban,” said Attorney General Herring. “Not only did Texas pass an unconstitutional ban on abortions, they did so in a way that attempted to circumvent any kind of judicial challenge, but I am helping to make sure that they do not get away with it.

 

“The women of Texas have suffered under this incredibly restrictive law for too long, unable to make important and often potentially life or death decisions about their own health and their own bodies. And we know that if this demeaning, unconstitutional law is allowed to stand, we will see this kind of anti-abortion bounty scheme enacted in more states around the country. The right to an abortion has been protected under the constitution for decades and the Supreme Court must maintain this precedent.”

Attorney General Herring has been in court from the outset fighting back against Texas’ unconstitutional abortion ban. He and his colleagues have filed numerous amicus briefs on behalf of the U.S. Department of Justice in support of their challenge to Texas’ law.

Attorney General Herring has been a strong advocate for women’s healthcare and reproductive rights in Virginia. Last month, Attorney General Herring led a coalition of 21 attorneys general in filing an amicus brief in Planned Parenthood South Atlantic v. Wilson arguing that South Carolina’s six-week abortion ban harms women’s healthcare and a lower court’s ruling blocking the law should be upheld. He has stood against attacks on women’s reproductive freedom and has fought in court to defend women’s access to comprehensive healthcare services, including abortion and birth control. He issued an official advisory opinion that helped protect women’s health clinics from expensive and medically unnecessary retrofits that would have closed many Virginia clinics that offer abortion services. Attorney General Herring successfully fought alongside his colleagues in the Whole Women’s Health case to strike down Texas’s onerous, medically unnecessary regulations and he has fought for women’s reproductive justice around the country, working with colleagues to oppose medically unnecessary restrictions on abortion in Ohio and Alabama. Additionally, he continuously fought against the Trump Administration’s attacks on women’s access to the full range of reproductive health care services and contraception options.

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