The Massachusetts Medical Society applauds Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey for leading a coalition of 24 state attorneys general in filing an amicus brief in support of the U.S. Department of Justice’s lawsuit to prevent Texas from enforcing an egregious law that prohibits nearly all abortions.
Because of the Supreme Court’s failure to intervene earlier this month, millions of people in Texas are being denied their constitutional right to seek reproductive health care services. This law will have an immediate and devastating impact, with the most harm falling disproportionately on Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) communities, compounding existing inequities in access to abortion.
This insidious law is an affront to the practice of medicine and an unwarranted interference in the physician-patient relationship, which is built upon trust and is especially critical in deeply personal medical decisions. Not only does Texas S.B. 8 illegally ban virtually all abortion, but it deputizes citizen bounty hunters to harass and intimidate people through litigation. This will have a broad chilling effect on people’s decisions to access the entire spectrum of reproductive health care. The Medical Society believes that health care is a basic human right and strives for equity in access to and quality of care. This law is the antithesis to those ideals and will no doubt harm maternal and infant health outcomes in the short and long term, further exacerbating health disparities.
We urge the district court to halt the enforcement of this dangerous law. The Medical Society stands with the physicians and care providers of Texas who seek to continue providing compassionate, judgment free health care and to all the people of Texas whom this law will harm.
-Carole E. Allen, MD, MBA, FAAP, President, Massachusetts Medical Society
