Planned Parenthood Action Fund is launching a six-figure ad campaign calling on voters to take action on President Donald Trump and select GOP lawmakers' anti-abortion efforts on the same day as the Supreme Court is expected to hear oral arguments in an abortion case that rights activists say could "render the protections of Roe v. Wade," the landmark 1973 ruling enshrining a woman's right to abortion, "meaningless."
The case, June Medical Services v. Russo, seeks to challenge an abortion restriction in Louisiana that requires physicians who perform the procedure to have "active admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of the facility where the abortion is carried out.
Under the rule, which Planned Parenthood has branded medically unnecessary, doctors who perform an abortion without having admitting privileges could face imprisonment or heavy fines, while the clinics they work at could see their licenses revoked.
In Louisiana,Jenny Lawson, vice president of organizing and engagement campaigns, Planned Parenthood Action Fund, told Newsweek it could effectively render abortion care inaccessible for many across the state, cutting access to the procedure down to just one clinic.
"The impact of this case is that Roe could be rendered essentially meaningless," Lawson said. "It could leave Louisiana with only one abortion provider."
Meanwhile, if the Supreme Court allows the law to stand, other states seeking to bar abortion access could quickly follow suit, she said.
"Abortion access is hanging by a thread, essentially, and this case could really snap it," Lawson said. "It paves the way for states to effectively ban abortion across the nation and it will chip away at Roe...It'll be the beginning of the end, really."
The Supreme Court hearing comes as states across the country continue to introduce anti-abortion legislation in the hopes that the court, which now holds a five-justice conservative majority following the appointment of Justice Brett Kavanaugh in 2018, will overturn Roe v. Wade.
Without Roe, states seeking to enact laws imposing strict limitations on abortion, or barring it altogether, would no longer have the right to access standing in their way.
That is why, on Wednesday, Planned Parenthood Action Fund is launching a campaign calling on voters to take action to unseat President Donald Trump and hold Republican lawmakers who pushed Kavanaugh through to the Supreme Court and who have backed anti-abortion legislation, to account.
The digital ads seek to "call out" Trump, Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina and Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, specifically, for "contributing to a world where the protections of Roe v. Wade are at risk like never before," Planned Parenthood said in a statement shared with Newsweek ahead of the ad campaign's launch.
The ads highlight how Trump "vowed to see Roe v. Wade overturned," as well as how Collins voted to confirm Kavanaugh and how Tillis and other lawmakers urged the Supreme Court to reconsider Roe.
One ad taking aim at Trump calls on voters to "join the fight" against the effort to "roll back access to safe, legal abortion."
The ads targeting Tillis and Collins will roll out on Wednesday in North Carolina and Maine, while those taking aim at Trump will be rolled out in battleground states, Lawson said.
"We are hoping that women who support Planned Parenthood, women who support access to safe and legal abortion, will know the positions of their elected officials and understand how their decisions impact their lives," she said.
Correction: The original article said that a Supreme Court landmark ruling was taking place on March 4. Only oral arguments are being heard.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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Chantal Da Silva is Chief Correspondent at Newsweek, with a focus on immigration and human rights. She is a Canadian-British journalist whose work ... Read more
