Amicus Curiae Brief — Whole Woman's Health v. Cole, 136 S. Ct. 499 (2015) (No. 15-274)
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No. 15-274
IN THE
Supreme Court of the United States
WHOLE WOMAN’S HEALTH, ET AL.,
PETITIONERS,
V.
JOHN HELLERSTEDT, COMMISSION, TEXAS
DEPARTMENT OF STATE HEALTH SERVICES, ET AL. ,
RESPONDENTS.
On Writs of Certiorari to the United States Court of
Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
BRiEF OF AMICUS CURIAE AFRICAN-
AMERICAN AND HISPANIC-AMERICAN
ORGANIZATIONS IN SUPPORT OF
RESPONDENTS
MORSE TAN, Esq.
Counsel of Record
27W 156 Fleming Dr
Winfield, IL 60190
(512) 289-5973
morsetan@gmail.com
Counsel for Amicus Curiae
i
TABLE OF CONTENTS
TABLE OF AUTHORITIES .................:cccccssesssssecenees iii
INTEREST OF AMICUS CURIAE ..............c eee l
SUMMARY OF ARGUMENT....................ccccccssesseeeees 5
cael enindesdnanennadantoccaniennes 6
I. PROTECTING WOMEN FROM
SUBSTANDARD ABORTIONISTS AND
SUBSTANDARD ABORTION
FACILITIES, BOTH OF WHICH
DISPROPORTIONATELY IMPACT
RACIAL MINORITIES, IS A
LEGITIMATE STATE INTEREST..................... 6
Il. THE RACIAL DEMOGRAPHICS OF
ABORTION INDICATE THAT
MINORITIES ARE
DISPROPORTIONATELY IMPACTED
Bi THE ABORTION INDUSTRY. ................... 16
A. Rooted in the population control
movement of the early Twentieth
Century, abortion has historically
been used to target racial minorities.......... 16
B. The national statistics regarding
abortions committed on minorities
demonstrates its disproportional
a 20
‘3
C. Texas minority women fall prey to
most abortions in the state. ......................0. 23
TTC Stn ee Eee mae a 24
APPENDIX
Appendix A: Excerpt from 2011 Report by Life
Dynamics Incorporated...............cccccccccccssssscsscscceseees
TABLE OF AUTHORITIES
Cases:
Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas Surgical
Health Services v. Abbott (“Abbott IT”)
748 F.3d 583 (5% Cir. 2014)..........0.....00.... 15-16
Planned Parenthood of Southeastern
Pennsylvania v. Casey,
eee a rae
Relf v. Weinberger,
372 F. Supp. 1196 (D.D.C. 1974).............ccceeeeee 18
Roe v. Wade,
EE ene Sana Pate ee
a
Act of July 12, 2013, 83" Leg., 2d C.S., Ch. 1,
I a rendiintiln
House Research Org., Bill Analysis at 10, Tex.
H.B. 2, 8374 Leg., 2d C.S. (July 9, 2013) (House
Bill Analysis), available at
http://www.hro.house.state.tx.us/pdf/ba832/hb00
“Abortion Surveillance — United States, 2010,”
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, Vol. 62,
No. 8, Nov. 29, 2013, available at http://
www.cdc.gov/mmwr/pdf /ss/ss6208. pdf ....................
iv
Arialdi M. Minino, et al., Deaths: Final Data
for 2008. National Vital Statistics Reports:
Vol. 59 No. 10. Hyattsville, MD: National
Center for Health Statistics, 2011, available at
http://bit.ly/CDC-DEATHB. ..................scceecceseseeeeseees 23
Barbara Boland, “Planned Parenthood Settles
$2 Million Case After Botched Abortion,” CNS
News, Feb. 14, 2014, available’ at
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/barbar-
boland/planned-parenthood-settles-2-million-
case-after-botched-abortion ................c0ssceceeeeeeees 12-13
Brady Dennis, “Abortion doctor’s trial focuses on
immigrant’s death after procedure,” The
Washington Post, Apr. 16, 2013, available at
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health
-science/abortion-doctors-trial-focuses-on-
immigrants-death-after-
procedure/2013/04/16/735ca602-a6de- 1 1e2-a8e2-
ESI ncrcinnseccgnnemimesmensineinuenmntie 7
Brief of Amicus Curia Black Women’s Health
Initiative, NAACP v. Horne, 2015 WL 8736288
I a neneieel 17-18
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
Surveillance Summaries: Abortion
Surveillance United States 2010, 62 MMWR,
Nov. 29, 2013, available at http://
www.cdc.gov/mmwr/pdf/ss/ss6208. pdf ........ 11, 21, 24
Christopher Tietze, Induced Abortion: A
World Review, 1983, 5*6 Ed (1983). ......................... 20
Vv
Clenard Childress, MAAFA 21: A
documentary on eugenics and genocide,
YOUTUBE, (Oct. 27, 2012), available at
https://youtu.be/OeWxCRReTV4....................004. 22, 23
Conor Friedersdorft, “Why Dr. Kermit Gosnell’s
Trial Should Be a Front-Page Story,” The
Atlantic, Apr. 12, 2015, available at
http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/201
3/04/why-dr-kermit-gosnells-trial-should-be-a-
RSET ALAS RO re 7
Dennis Byrne, “Was Planned Parenthood
licensed to do the kind of abortion that killed
Tonya Reaves?”, ChicagoNow, July 25, 2012,
available at http://www.chicagonow.com
/dennis-byrnes-barbershop/2012/07/was-
planned-parenthood-licensed-to-do-the-kind-
of-abortion-that-killed-tonya-reaves/ ...................... 12
Donald T. Critchlow, INTENDED
CONSEQUEUENCES: BIRTH CONTROL,
ABORTION, AND THE FEDERAL
GOVERNMENT IN MODERN AMERICA 144
a clnaeneennogunhdans 18, 19
Dr. Alveda King, How Can the Dream Survive?,
ST. LOUIS REVIEW, Nov. 5, 2015, available at
http://stlouisreview.com/article/2015-11-05/how-
IIIT scnccccsinsscnpeienesnteptninmmnnmbdancnsessieeaiii 6
Dr. Alveda King, MAAFA 21: A documentary on
eugenics and genocide, YOUTUBE, (Oct. 27,
2012), available at
https://youtu.be/OeWxCCReTV4............ccccccceeeeeeeeees 23
vl
Grand Jury Rpt., Jn re County Investigating
Grand Jury XXIII, No. 0009901-2008. 2011 WL
711902 (1% Jud. Dist. Pa. Jan. 14, 2011),
available at
http://www.phila.gov/districtattorney/pdfs/grandj
urywomensmedical. pdf ................cccceeeeeeeeeeeeees 8, 10-12
Guttmacher Institute — Induced Abortion in
the United States — July 2014 available at
http://www.guttmacher.org/pubx/fb_induced_a
ESERIES enna mene Ka REO NTS 21
Guttmacher Institute, National Reproductive
Health Profile, available at
http://bit.ly/2008NatlStats ...............cccceeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee 23
Jones v. Planned Parenthood, No. 20013 L
00076 (Cir. Ct. of Cook Cnty., Ill.), Deposition
of Mandy Gittler, M.D., Aug. 22, 2013,
available at http://operationrescue.org/pdfs/
Deposition%200f%20Mandy%20Gittler,%20M.
Kim Severson, “Thousands Sterilized, a State
Weighs Restitution,” NY Times, Dec. 9, 2011,
available at
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/10/us/redress
-weighed-for-forced-sterilizations-
innorthcarolinahtm]?pagewanted=all..................... 17
Mark Crutcher, MAAFA 21: A documentary
on eugenics and genocide, YOUTUBE (Oct. 27,
2012), available at
https://youtu.be/OeWxCRReTV4..............ccccceeece eens 20
vil
New York State Department of Health, Vital
Statistics Table 23: Induced Abortion and
Abortion Ratios by Race/Ethnicity and
Resident County New York State 2013,
available at http://www.health.ny.gov
/statistics/vital_statistics/2013/table23.htm ...... 21-22
Operation Rescue, Special Report: Secret Ohio
Department of Health Docs Reveal 47 Horrific
Botched Abortions, Countless Safety Violations
and More, (May 26, 2015), available at
http://www.operationrescue.org/archives/speci
al-report-secret-ohio-department-of-health-
docs-reveal-47-horriffic-bothched- abortions-
countless-safety-violations-and-more’............... 14, 15
Randy Beck, Prioritizing Abortion Access over
Abortion, Safety in Pennsylvania, 8 U. ST.
THOMAS J.L. & PUB. POLICY 33, (2013)............. 12
Report of Expert Witness filed in support of
Complaint, Jones v. Planned Parenthood (Cir.
Ct. of Cook Cnty., Ill., Jan. 3, 2013) (No. 20013
SEES Erne ae ea ete ene 13
Samuel W Calhoun, Stopping Philadelphia
Abortion Provider Kermit Gosnell and
Preventing Others Like Him: An Outcome
That Both Pro-Choicers and Pro-Lifers Should
Support, 57 VILL. L. REV 1 (2012)..............0000...0.. 12
“State of Shame: N.C. sterilization survivors
fight for justice,” NBC’s Rock Center, Nov. 7,
2011, available at http://www.nbcnew.
com/video/rock-center/45201021.............ccccccceceeeeeees 16
Statement of Walter B. Hoye II], NATIONAL
BLACK PRO-LIFE COALITION ONLINE,
available at http://www.blackprolifecoalition.org/
speakers/walterhoye. html ....................2...ccececeeeeeeeeees 5
Texas Department of State Health Services,
Texas Population, 2010 (Historical Race
Ethnicity Categories), available at
http://www.dshs.state.tx.us/chs/popdat/ST2010.s
SRST EArt Oreck Sse ORR Re eas SNE BABES 23, 24
Texas House of Representatives, HOUSE
JOURNAL, 83"¢ Leg. 2d C.S., July 9, 2013, HB2
Debate — Second Reading, Testimony of Rep.
I ll eas Saad 9-10
Zoe Dutton, “Abortion’s Racial Gap,” The
Atlantic, Sept. 22, 2014, available at
http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/
09/abortions-racial-gap/38025 V/ .............cccceeeeeeeeeeeeee 8
1
INTEREST OF AMICUS CURIAE!
Ryan Bomberger, Chief Creative Officer, The
Radiance Foundation is a non-profit, educational
organization established to affirm that every human
life has purpose. Through ad campaigns, multimedia
presentations, community outreaches, and citizen
journalism, Radiance illuminates the intrinsic value
we all possess. We motivate people to peacefully and
positively affect the world around them. Radiance
works on a local and national level to advance a
culture of life that rejects abortion, promotes
adoption, celebrates intact married families, and
protects the free speech that makes this messaging
possible.
Mark Gonzales, United States Hispanic Action
Network
The United States Hispanic Action Network
exists to train, educate, motivate and equip citizens,
Hispanics in particular, to change the culture to
reflect biblical truth. We reach tens of thousands of
Hispanic Americans and advocate a pro-life position.
Recognizing the disproportionate affect that abortion
is having on the Latino community, we supported
HB2 in Texas. As a Dallas, Texas based
organization, we have particular interest in this
Supreme Court case.
1 Parties to these cases have consented to the filing of this brief
and letters indicating their consent are on file with the Clerk.
Amicus states that no counsel for a party authored this brief in
whole or in part, and no person other than the amicus and its
counsel made any monetary contribution intended to fund the
preparation or submission of this brief.
Catherine Davis, President, The Restoration
Project
The Restoration Project is a_ non-profit
organization dedicated to rebuilding families,
promoting the sanctity of life, and providing related
educational materials, in order to transform
American public policy and culture's impact on Black
life. TRP works with pastors, ministry leaders and
organizations to restore a culture of uprightness,
evenhandedness, and virtue.
Day Gardner, President, National Black Pro-
life Union
The National Black Pro-Life Union was founded
to serve as a clearing house in order to coordinate
the flow of communications among African American
pro-life groups and individuals in order to better
network and combine resources. Headquartered in
Washington, DC, we are committed to working with
pro-life members of the U.S. House and Senate to
expand protections for unborn children.
Walter & Lori Hoye
The Issues4Life Foundationis a _ non-profit
organization that targets and works directly with
Black American leaders nationwide to strengthen
their stand against abortion on demand. Our mission
is to end abortion by raising awareness of the impact
of abortion and _ the _ biblically immoral
implementation of unethical biotechnology in Black
3
America. We are committed to protecting both the
civil and human rights of the child in the womb by
recognizing the inherent dignity and inalienable
rights of all members of the human family, so that in
law and in practice every life is valued from the
womb to the tomb. We understand that without life,
nothing matters.
Pastor Stephen Broden, Protect Life and
Marriage Texas works to uphold the Judeo-
Christian ethic established by our Founding Fathers
in our society with the view of securing liberty for
marriages, the American family and the life of the
unborn.
Bishop E. W. Jackson
STAND Foundation, Inc. ("STAND") is a nonprofit
organization dedicated to bringing people together
across racial and cultural lines to restore America's
Judeo-Christian heritage and values, which includes
the protection of unborn human life as the first
priority. STAND is a nationwide organization with
representation in states across America. It has a
subsidiary organization of MINISTERS TAKING A
STAND, made up of pastors committed to upholding
the sacredness of life, marriage and family as God
ordained them.
Dean Nelson, Chairman, The Douglass
Leadership Institute advocates righteousness,
justice, liberty and virtue. Our mission is to educate,
equip and empower faith-based leaders to embrace
and apply biblical principles to life and in the
market place. Our strategic pillar, to empower black
4
faith-based leaders to impact the marketplace,
specifically highlights the disproportionate impact
that abortion has had in the African American
community.
Naticaal Black Prolife Coalition
The National Black Prolife Coalition is a
network of organizations and churches with more
than a thousand supporters committed to restoring
life, family and hope in the black community. The
Coalition's mission is to end abortion by restoring a
culture of life and the foundation of family in the
black community.
Troy Rolling, Chairman, Frederick Douglass
Foundation is a national education and public
policy organization with local chapters across
the United States which brings the sanctity of
free market and limited government ideas to bear on
the hardest problems facing our nation. We are a
collection of proactive
individuals committed to developing innovative and
new approaches totoday's problems with the
assistance of _ elected officials, scholars
fyom universities and colleges, and community
gctivists.
Rev. Eric Wallace, Ph.D., Freedom's Journal
Institute
Freedom’s Journal Institute for the Study of
Faith and Public Policy is a 501(c)(3). Our mission is
devoted to the research, education, and the
advancement of public policy that promotes:
Responsible government, Individual liberty and
5
fidelity, Strong family values, and Economic
empowerment (R.I.S.E Principles), with a biblical
perspective. We believe that the gospel message has
both political and public policy implications, which
include long term ministry goals such as
“proclaiming freedom for the prisoners, recovery of
sight for the blind, and releasing of the oppressed.”
Urban Family Communications works to inform
and empower black families to grow into
mature disciples by wisely applying biblical truth to
our issues and interests. We stand for truth, wisdom,
and empowerment.
SUMMARY OF ARGUMENT
The Civil Rights movement has not ended.
Minority lives still matter. Whether it is the rights
of the Latina or African-American mother or the
rights of her direct descendents, they all matter.
The scourge of abortion has reached genocidal
proportions, destroying the lives of our youngest
minority citizens and adversely impacting their
mothers. In the words of amicus Issues4Life
Foundation’s Walter Hoye, “The impact of abortion
in the African-American community is the Darfur of
America.” A faithful application of HB2 directly
protects pregnant women, and in its indirect effects,
potentially their progeny. Such laws help to
decrease the disproportionate harm to minority
2 Statement of Walter B. Hoye IT, NATIONAL BLACK PRO-LIFE
COALITION ONLINE, available at
http://www.blackprolifecoalition.org/speakers/walterhoye.htm!
(last accessed 31 Jan. 2016).
6
women in the states that pass them, and as such,
should be upheld by this Court. After all, protecting
life, whether of mothers, fathers and our children, is
the pre-requisite right for protecting every other
right. Without it, talk about all other civil rights
turns moot. Hence, this brief seeks to advance the
Civil Rights movement in its most indispensable
keystone, without which the bridge collapses.
ARGUMENT
In reference to her uncle Martin Luther King,
Jr.’s d' eam, Dr. Alveda King queries, “‘How can the
dream survive if we murder our children?"3. The
survivors in future generations will be astonished at
the massive blind spot that this simple but profound
question uncovers for our current period of history.
The unanimous consensus of all major medical
textbooks waits for the law to reflect what it already
knows. In the meantime, minority women and their
offspring suffer the majority of what the abortion
industry inflicts in Texas and other states. This
Court can take a substantial step towards fulfilling
the dream by upholding the judgment of the 5%
Circuit regarding HB2 against the attempts to strike
down its sensibly protective measures for women
directly and potentially, indirectly for their progeny.
I. PROTECTING WOMEN FROM
SUBSTANDARD ABORTIONISTS AND
3 Dr. Alveda King, How Can the Dream Survive?, St. LOUIS
REVIEW, Nov. 5, 2015, available online at
http://stlouisreview.com/article/2015-1 1-05/how-can-dream-
survive (last accessed 31 Jan. 2016).
7
SUBSTANDARD ABORTION FACILITIES,
BOTH OF WHICH
DISPROPORTIONATELY IMPACT RACIAL
MINORITIES, IS A LEGITIMATE STATE
INTEREST.
In 2013, Texas passed HB2 in response to the
Kermit Gosnell scandal. The scandal, which
revealed that at least one woman® and seven
newborns had lost their lives, and which resulted in
a life sentence without the possibility of parole based
on first-degree murder and involuntary
manslaughter convictions, was widely-pronounced to
be a preventable tragedy caused by the errors of
government administration: “multiple local and state
agencies [we]re implicated in an oversight failure
that is epic in proportions[.|"° The Gosnell case is
‘ Act of duly 12, 2013, 83rd Leg., 2d C.S., ch. 1, 2013 Tex. Gen.
Laws 5013; House Research Org., Bil! Analysis at 10, Tex. H.B.
2, 83rd Leg., 2d C.S. (July 9, 2013) (House Bill Analysis),
http://www.hro.house.state.tx.us/pdf/ba832/hb0002.pdf (stating
that higher health care standards for women seeking abortions
will help prevent a “Kermit Gosnell” situation).
5 The woman’s name was Karnamaya Mongar. She survived
two decades in a Nepalese refugee camp before immigrating to
America. See Brady Dennis, “Abortion doctor’s trial focuses on
immigrant’s death after procedure,” The Washington Post, Apr.
16, 2013, available at
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-
science/abortion-doctors-trial-focuses-on-immigrants-death-
after-procedure/2013/04/16/735ca602-a6de- 1 1e2-a8e2-
5b98cb59187£_story. html] (last accessed Jan. 29, 2013).
6 Conor Friedersdorf, “Why Dr. Kermit Gosnell’s Tria] Should
Be a Front-Page Story,” The Atlantic, Apr. 12, 2015, available
online at
http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/04/why-dr-
kermit-gosnells-trial-should-be-a-front-page-story/274944/ (last
8
notable in many respects, not least of which is that it
exposed disturbing racial dimensions of abortion,
suggesting that providers routinely discriminate
against minority women, who suffer
disproportionately from abortion procedures in
comparison to their white counterparts.’
In response to the atrocities, Texas lawmakers
sought to ensure that the gruesome practices®
witnessed in Pennsylvania were not replicated in
their state. Thus, to prevent Gosnell-like clinics
from opening or continuing to operate, they passed
HB2, and the bill’s restrictions can be properly
accessed Jan. 28, 2016).
7 See, e.g. “Abortion Surveillance — United States, 2010,”
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Morbidity and
Mortality Weekly Report, Vol. 62, No. 8, Nov. 29, 2013, available
online at http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/pdf/ss/ss6208.pdf (last
accessed 29 Jan. 2016) (stating that in 2010, 56.7% of abortions
reported to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control nationwide
were performed on Hispanic or Black women); Zoe Dutton,
“Abortion’s Racial Gap,” The Atlantic, Sept. 22, 2014, available
at
http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/09/abortions-
racial-gap/380251/ (last accessed 29 Jan. 2016) (citing study by
U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirming
that African-American women are more likely to have abortion
than white women).
8 See, e.g. Grand Jury Rpt., In re Cnty. Investigating Grand
Jury XXIII, NO. 0009901-2008, 2011 WL 711902 (ist Jud. Dist.
Pa. Jan. 14, 2011), available online at
http://www.phila.gov/districtattorney/pdfs/grandjurywomensme
dical.pdf at page 4 (last accessed 29 Jan. 2016) (“Gosnell had a
simple solution for the unwanted babies he delivered: he killed
them. He didn’t call it that. He called it ‘ensuring fetal
demise.’ The way he ensured fetal demise was by sticking
scissors into the back of the baby’s neck and cutting the spinal
cord. He called that ‘snipping.”).
9
viewed as attempting to minimize injuries to African
American and Latina women by raising the standard
of care, and reducing the risk of substandard
facilities and personnel, used in abortion procedures.
This is a legitimate state interest under Planned
Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey,
505 U.S. 833 (1992), because even though the law
may have “the incidental effect of making it more
difficult or more expensive to procure an abortion,”
the law’s “valid purpose(s]” — here, protecting
women’s, and particularly minority women’s health,
among others — “do not strike at the right [to obtain
an abortion] itself.” Jd. at 874; see also, Roe v. Wade,
410 U.S. 113, 162 (1973) (The State “does have an
important and legitimate interest in preserving and
protecting the health of the pregnant woman and
it has still another important and legitimate interest
in protecting the potentiality of human life.”).
Further consideration of the Pennsylvania
tragedies confirms the legitimacy behind HB2’s
added stringency on both Texas abortion-providing
physicians (the admitting privileges requirement)
and abortion facilities (the ambulatory surgical
center requirement). In essence, Texas lawmakers
wanted to prevent two all-too-real possibilities: first,
that a physician, like Dr. Gosnell (who could not
properly treat complications) be allowed to practice,
and second, that filthy Gosnell-like clinics with
rusty, outdated equipment be allowed to operate.
Texas lawmakers thought that all women, and
10
particularly minority women, deserved to be
protected from these dangerous possibilities.®
In Pennsylvania, the abortion clinic operated by
Dr. Gosnell intentionally ignored standard safety
precautions and recklessly risked the health of
minorities. Regarding Dr. Gosnell’s practices, the
Pennsylvania Grand Jury that indicted him
reported, “[o]n those rare occasions when the patient
was a white woman from the suburbs, Gosnell
insisted that he be consulted at every step.”1° In
contrast, the Grand Jury noted that black women
were subjected to “practices .that defy any medical
or even common-sense explanation,” such as Gosnell
“photographing women from Liberia and other
African countries who had undergone
clitorodectomies, the surgical removal of the
clitoris.”!
The testimony of Tina Baldwin, one of Gosnell’s
unlicensed and untrained longtime employees, is
provided in the same report: “Q: Okay. Was [Dr.
Gosnell] present when you did that medication? A:
No, no. And sometimes he asked them — but it was a
race thing. Q: What do you mean? A: It was — he
° Cf. Tex. House of Representatives, HOUSE JOURNAL, 83rd Leg.
2d C.S., July 9, 2013, HB2 Debate — Second Reading,
Testimony of Rep. Jodie Laubenberg, sponsor of HB2, at page
S3 (“Again, anything that’s going to improve the facility, that’s
going to help get better health care to this woman in case any
complication should arise, is always a good thing.”).
10Grand Jury Rpt. at 7, In re Cnty. Investigating Grand Jury
XXIII, NO. 0009901-2008, 2011 WL 711902 (ist Jud. Dist. Pa.
Jan. 14, 2011) (emphasis added).
1 Jd. at 73.
11
sometimes he used to — okay. Like if a girl — the
black population was — African population was big
here. So he didn’t mind you medicating your African-
American girls, your Indian girl, but if you had a
white girl from the suburbs, oh, you better not
medicate her. You better wait until he go in and talk
to her first. And one day I said something to him and
he was like, that’s the way of the world. Huh? And
he brushed it off and that was it.”!2 Baldwin also
testified that “white patients often did not have to
wait in the same dirty rooms as black and Asian
clients. Instead, Gosnell would escort them up the
back steps to the only clean office — Dr. O’Neill’s —
and he would turn on the TV for them.”!3
Given that Hispanic-Americans receive the most
abortions of any racial group in Texas!‘ and that
African-Americans receive the highest proportion of
abortions relative to their percentage of the
population,'5 the HB2 standards would protect a
large number of minority women — women similar,
in many respects, to those whose procedures Gosnell
botched with criminal neglect and disdain. Since the
events that transpired in Pennsylvania were
12 Id. at 62.
13 Jd.
14 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Abortion
Surveillance United States, 2010, http://www.cdc.gov/mmw
preview/mmwrhtm//ss6208a1.htm#tab12 (last visited on
February 2, 2016.); Texas Dept. of State Health Services, Texas
Population, 2010 (Historical Race Ethnicity Categories),
http://www.dshs.state.tx.us/chs/popdat/ST2010.shtm (last
visited February 2, 2010)
18 Jd.
12
implicitly condoned by public authorities,'6 Texas
could not afford to turn a blind eye to the possibility
of misconduct: the health and safety of minority
women were clearly interests worth protecting
through legislation, and ones both pro-lifers and pro-
choice advocates could rally behind.?’
The scope of the problem went beyond Gosnell,
however — news around the country indicated the
need for additional restrictions. In Chicago around
the same time as the Gosnell case, for example, a
woman by the name of Tonya Reaves underwent
three rounds of dilation and evacuation (D&E)
procedures in a Planned Parenthood that was not a
licensed ambulatory surgical center.'® Reaves, a
16 Randy Beck, Prioritizing Abortion Access over Abortion
Safety in Pennsylvania, 8 U. St. THOMAS J.L. & PUB. POL'y 33,
37-38 (2013) (“Pennsylvania officials gave Gosnell plenty of
reason to believe that noncompliance with the law would be
overlooked.”); see also, Grand Jury Rpt. at 137, In re Cnty.
Investigating Grand Jury XXIII, NO. 0009901-2008, 2011 WL
711902 (1st Jud. Dist. Pa. Jan. 14, 2011) (“We discovered that
Pennsylvania’s Department of Health has deliberately chosen
not to enforce laws that should afford patients at abortion
clinics the same safeguards and assurances of quality health
care as patients of other medical service providers. Even nail
salons in Pennsylvania are monitored more closely for client
safety.”).
17 See Samuel W. Calhoun, Stopping Philadelphia Abortion
Provider Kermit Gosnell and Preventing Others Like Him: An
Outcome That Both Pro-Choicers and Pro-Lifers Should
Support, 57 VILL. L. REv. 1 (2012).
18 See Dennis Byrne, “Was Planned Parenthood licensed to do
the kind of abortion that killed Tonya Reaves?’, ChicagoNow,
Jul. 25, 2012, available online at
http://www.chicagonow.com/dennis-byrnes-
barbershop/2012/07/was-planned-parenthood-licensed-to-do-
13
healthy 24-year-old black woman, was 16 weeks
pregnant at the time she chose to have an abortion.
After the procedure was botched, Reaves bled
heavily and at times uncontrollably for five and a
half hours without curative medical treatment and
ultimately died from the hemorrhaging.
Dr. Mandy Gittler, the physician who performed
the abortion, did not have admitting privileges at
Northwestern Memorial Hospital,'® the hospital to
which Reaves was eventually transferred. Dr.
Gittler was not a board certified
Obstetrician/Gynecologist. Reaves’s autopsy
revealed a perforated uterus as the cause of death.
Another abortionist, a board certified doctor in
Obstetrics/Gynecology, concluded: “Based on my
review of the records, I am of the opinion that a
reasonable and meritorious malpractice action exists
against Planned Parenthood and Dr. M. Gittler...”2°
the-kind-of-abortion-that-killed-tonya-reaves/ (last accessed
Jan. 29, 2016); Barbara Boland, “Planned Parenthood Settles
$2 Million Case After Botched Abortion,” CNS News, Feb. 14,
2014, available online at
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/barbara-boland/planned-
parenthood-settles-2-million-case-after-botched-abortion (last
accessed 29 Jan. 2016) (noting that, in light of Ms. Reaves’s
death, an Illinois state representative “proposed a bill to amend
the Ambulatory Surgical Treatment Center statute, to close a
loophole that allow[ed] the clinics to § remain exempt.”).
19 Jones v. Planned Parenthood, No. 2013 L 000076 (Cir. Ct. of
Cook Cnty., Ill.), Depo. of Mandy Gittler, M.D., Aug. 22, 2013,
p. 136-7, available online at
http://operationrescue.org/pdfs/Deposition%200f%20Mandy%20
Gittler,%20M.D..pdf (last accessed 29 Jan. 2016).
20 Report of Expert Witness filed in support of Complaint, Jones
v. Planned Parenthood (Cir. Ct. of Cook Cnty., Ill., Jan. 3, 2013)
(No. 20013 L 0076).
14
If Dr. Gittler had admitting privileges at
Northwestern Memorial Hospital or another nearby
hospital, Tonya Reaves could very well still be alive
today.
LaKisha Wilson, a 22 year-old black woman
from Ohio, also died as a result of troubling
complications from a late term abortion.?! Her death
could have been prevented if Preterm, the abortion
clinic, had been properly equipped to provide
necessary emergency care when she went into
cardiac arrest from hemorrhaging. Medical records
show that the EMS was called an entire nine
minutes after Wilson had already suffered cardiac
arrest and stopped breathing.?? Upon arrival at the
clinic, EMS personnel were further delayed from
reaching Wilson due to a malfunctioning elevator.
When the EMS personnel finally reached her, they
found Wilson lying pulseless on the table with a
pediatric mask positioned on her face, and her IV
somehow pulled out of her by mistake amidst the
21 LaKisha Wilson’s medical records are unclear whether the
fetus age was 19 or 23 weeks. See Operation Rescue, Special
Report: Secret Ohio Department of Health Docs Reveal 47
Horrific Botched Abortions, Countless Safety Violations and
More, (May 26, 2015), available at
http://www.operationrescue.org/archives/special-report-secret-
ohio-department-of-health-docs-reveal-47-horrific-botched-
abortions-countless-safety-violations-and-more/ (citing
Abortiondocs.org, Medical Records for LaKisha Wilson, Ohio
Department of Health and Human Services, (Apr. 3, 2014),
available at http://www.abortiondocs.org/wp-
conten/uploads/2015/05/Wilson-Preterm-Record.pdf and
http://abortiondocs.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Wilson-
EMS-Report.pdf
22 Td. at 43.
15
chaotic scene. The EMS personnel changed the
child-sized mask to an appropriate adult mask so
that Wilson could properly receive oxygen and
administered emergency care before attempting to
transfer her to a nearby hospital. As yet another
obstacle, EMS personnel were not able to intubate
Wilson and begin other lifesaving measures until she
reached the ambulance because the malfunctioning
elevator was not large enough for her to be carried
out laying flat on the gurney.?3
At the end of this disturbing scramble to receive
proper care, Lakisha Wilson died at the hospital.
Her father wrote about Wilson’s death, “My
daughter, LaKisha Wilson, died under suspicious
circumstances.”24 LaKisha Wilson’s death was a
needless tragedy and an example of seriously
inadequate medical protections for women
undergoing procedures in substandard abortion
clinics.
Even one life lost due to substandard
abortionists and their substandard facilities is too
many. HB2 would help prevent these types of
tragedies from happening to many women seeking
an abortion, including the substantial number of
minority women who would be impacted. Since pro-
choice advocates have at times indicated that they
23 Medical records for LaKisha Wilson, Ohio Department of
Health and Human Services, April 3, 2014, at page 13,
available at http://www.abortiondocs.org/wp-
content/uploads/2015/05/Wilson-Preterm-Record.pdf and at
http://abortiondocs.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Wilson-
EMS-Report.pdf.
4 Id. at 118.
16
want the provision of abortions to include HB2’s
safeguards,2® there should be no conflict on this
point. HB2 advances the legitimate state interest in
protecting the lives and health of women, including
for the minority groups in Texas, who obtain more
abortions than the white population.”6
Il. THE RACIAL DEMOGRAPHICS OF
ABORTION INDICATE THAT MINORITIES
ARE DISPROPORTIONATELY IMPACTED
BY THE ABORTION INDUSTRY.
A. Rooted in the population control
movement of the early Twentieth
Century, abortion has historically been
used to target racial minorities.
Throughout the twentieth century, thirty-one
states had Eugenics Commissions that sterilized
women, some as late as 1977 Sterilization decisions
were often based on whom officials deemed to be
“feeble-minded,” and many times those individuals
were poor African-Americans for whom the state had
an incentive to reduce public welfare entitlements.?’
26 See, e.g. the National Abortion Federation’s own prior
recommendation that abortion patients use a doctor who “[iJn
the case of emergency’ can ‘admit patients to a nearby hospital
(no more than 20 minutes away).” Planned Parenthood of
Greater Tex. Surgical Health Servs. v. Abbott (“Abbott IT”), 748
F.3d 583, 595 (5th Cir. 2014) (quoting National Abortion
Federation, Having an Abortion? Your Guide to Good Care
(2000)).
26 Supra n.14-15.
27 See, e.g. “State of Shame: N.C. sterilization survivors fight for
justice,” NBC’s Rock Center, Nov. 7, 2011, video news footage
available online at http://www.nbcnews.com/video/rock-
17
These programs “affected black Americans
disproportionately.”28
The Black Women’s Health Initiative provides a
partial history of the practices directed at reducing
the black population in America:
[I]n the first decade of the twentieth
century, twelve states passed
involuntary mandatory sterilization
laws that, in practice, primarily
targeted African-Americans.
Government funded doctors continued
sterilizations even after states
repealed involuntary _ sterilization
laws. In the 1930s and 1940s, the
North Carolina Eugenics Commission
sterilized 8,000 ‘mentally deficient
persons, which disproportionately
included 5,000 African-Americans, a
majority of those sterilized under this
category. In 1954, all of the people
sterilized at the South Carolina State
Hospital were African-American
women. [Tjeaching hospitals
performed unnecessary hysterectomies
on poor Black women as practice for
center/45201021 and
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nshj9r
CTPdE (last accessed 29 Jan. 2016).
28 Kim Severson, “Thousands Sterilized, a State Weighs
Restitution,” NY Times, Dec. 9, 2011, available online at
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/10/us/redress-weighed-for-
forced-sterilizations-innorthcarolinahtm]?pagewan
ted=all (last accessed Jan. 29, 2016).
18
their medical residents. This sort of
abuse was so widespread in the South
that these operations came to be
known aS ‘Mississippi
appendectomies. The doctors who
performed these surgeries later said
that they thought sterilization would
help stem population growth; one chief
of surgery explained that ‘a girl with
lots of kids, on welfare, and not
intelligent enough to use birth control,
is better off being sterilized.’ [Not
intelligent enough to use birth control
is often a code phrase for ‘black’ or
poor.29
“From the 1960s to the early 1970s, between
50,000 and 75,000 Black women were sterilized each
year, often with federal funds.”°° The facts of the
Relf case vividly illustrate the abuses of the period.
Two young sisters, Minnie Lee Relf, aged twelve and
Mary Alice Relf, aged fourteen, were sterilized in
Montgomery, Alabama through a federally-funded
program. The episode began when two
representatives of the federally financed county
Community Action Agency called on Minnie Relf, an
illiterate welfare mother of four, to instruct her that
two of her daughters needed shots. Trusting the
agency had the best interest of her children in mind,
2° Brief of Amicus Curia Black Women’s Health Initiative,
NAACP v. Horne, 2015 WL 8736288 at 10 (citations omitted).
30 Jd., citing Relf v. Weinberger, 372 F. Supp. 1196, 1199
(D.D.C. 1974), vacated on other grounds, 565 F.2d 722 (D.C.
Cir. 1977).
19
Mrs. Relf put her “X” on a paper without realizing
that she was allowing a sterilization operation for
her daughters, Minnie Lee and Mary Alice. The
sterilization of the Relf sisters became national news
when Joseph Levin, a lawyer, filed suit against the
federal government.*!
Incidents like these triggered some African-
American leaders’ worst fears about government-
funded family planning programs. “Birth control is
just a plot just as segregation was a plot to keep
blacks down. It is a plot rather than a solution.
Instead of working for us and giving us our rights—
you reduce us in numbers and do not have to give us
anything.”°? Black leaders such as Julius Lester,
Dick Gregory, Daniel H. Watts, and H. Rap Brown
went so far as to describe abortion and family
planning as “black genocide,” calling upon blacks to
eschew these practices to avoid “race suicide.”33
The legal status of abortion has had a racial
impact, in continuity with the racial dimension of
eugenics: “Studies from the CDC show that prior to
the legalization of abortion, approximately 80% of all
illegal abortions were done on white women. One
study in New York even found that white women
had five times as many abortions as black women,
but at the moment abortion became legalized, that
31 Donald T. Critchlow, INTENDED CONSEQUENCES: BIRTH
CONTROL, ABORTION, AND THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT IN
MODERN AMERICA 144 (Oxford Press 1999).
32 Jd. at 61 (quoting communication between Elsie Jackson,
PPFA field consultant to Alan F. Guttmacher, dated Apr. 4,
1966, subject file, Negro File, PPF'A).
33 Critchlow, supra n. 39at 142.
20
began to reverse. That's why the legalization of
abortion was so crucial to the eugenics movement.
Legalization created the ability to market abortion
in the black community, and from a eugenics
standpoint, that'changed everything.”
In 1973, Dr. Christopher Tietze wrote a study of
abortion demographics for the Population Council, a
New York based eugenics organization. He
confirmed that when abortion is illegal, the abortion
rate of white women is much higher than black
women, but that when abortion is legalized, the
trend reverses.25 He was a consultant for Planned
Parenthood and the National Abortion Federation
when publishing these results.
The racial aspect of the population control
movement expressed itself through eugenics and
found a “final solution” in abortion. Historically,
minorities have found themselves in the crosshairs
of a movement to reduce their population.
B. The _ national statistics regarding
abortions committed on minorities
demonstrates its disproportional
impact.
Nationwide, according to the Center for Disease
Control, “among the 28 areas that reported cross-
classified race/ethnicity data for 2010 Non-
34 Mark Crutcher, MAAFA 21: A documentary on eugenics and
genocide, YOUTUBE (Oct. 27, 2012), available at
https://youtu.be/OeWxCRReTV4 at 1:06:53 to 1:07:29
35 Christopher Tietze, Induced Abortion: A World Review, 1983,
5th Ed. (1983).
21
Hispanic white women had the lowest abortion rates
(8.6 abortions per 1,000 women aged 15-44 years)
and ratios (141 abortions per 1,000 live births),
whereas non-Hispanic black women had the highest
abortion rates (31.8 abortions per 1,000 women aged
15—44 years) and ratios (483 abortions per 1,000 live
births).”°6 Almost four times as many African-
American pregnancies ending in abortion as
compared with Caucasian-Americans surely counts
as disproportional.
According to Guttmacher Institute, the research
arm of Planned Parenthood, African American
women account for almost 40% of abortions in the
US, although African Americans account for just
13% of the population. Hispanic women account for
25% of abortions.*7 In New York City, more African-
American babies are aborted than are born alive.
The New York State Department of Health’s most
recent (2013) vital statistics report reveals that for
every 1,000 African-American babies born alive in
New York City, 1,180 were aborted. Comparatively,
240 abortions were performed for every 1,000 live
births among whites and there were 610 abortions
for every 1,000 Hispanic live births.** In other
36 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Surveillance
Summaries: Abortion Surveillance United States 2010, 62
MMWR, November 29, 2013, at 7,
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/pdf/ss/ss6208. pdf
31 Guttmacher Institute — Induced Abortion in the United
States — July 2014 available at
http://www.guttmacher.org/pubx/fb_induced_abortion. htm!
38 New York State Dep’t of Health, Vital Statistics Table 23:
Induced Abortion and Abortion Ratios by Race/Ethnicity and
Resident County New York State 2013,
22
words, the prevalence of abortion was more than two
and a half times higher among Hispanic-Americans
and almost five times higher among African-
Americans compared to Caucasian-Americans.
Clenard Childress expresses the situation in this
manner: “African women, though they make up 12%
of the population, have 37% of the abortions in the
U.S. An African-American baby is almost 5 times
more likely to be aborted than a white child. The
abortion industry at this point kills as many African-
American people in four days as the Klan killed in
150 years. You can truly say that the most
dangerous place for an African-American to be is in
the womb of his/her African-American mother.”®? To
give further perspective to the impact on African-
Americans, “Since 1973, legal abortion has killed
more African-Americans than AIDS, cancer,
diabetes, heart disease and violent crime combined.
Every week, more blacks die in abortion clinics than
were killed in the entire Vietnam War.”*°
Dr. Alveda King, the niece of Martin Luther
King, Jr., describes the situation as follows: “This
same attitude has allowed Planned Parenthood and
other members of the abortion industry to carry out
this genocide right under our very noses. Right now
in America, about half of our babies are being killed
in the womb, and in certain parts of America, more
http://www.health.ny.gov/statistics/vital_statistics/2013/table23
-htm
38 Clenard Childress, MAAFA 21: A documentary on eugenics
and genocide, YOUTUBE, (Oct. 27, 2012), available at
https://youtu.be/OeWxCRReTV34 at 1:04:57 to 1:05:40
40Jd. at 1:04:27
23
of our babies are being aborted than are being
born.”4!
Based on CDC and Guttmacher Institute data in
2008, there were in the African-American
community 5,686 HIV deaths, 8,206 deaths from
homicides, 11,934 diabetes deaths, 12,215 accidental
deaths, 63,279 cancer deaths, and 69,918 deaths
from heart disease. All of these causes of death
equal 285,522 combined. The number of deaths
through abortions reached 363,705 exceeding the
sum of all of these other causes.*?
C. Texas minority women fall prey to most
abortions in the state.
In Texas, the greatest number of abortions were
performed on Hispanic-Americans, 38.8% of the
total, which is higher than their percentage of the
population.*3 Caucasian-Americans accounted for
30.7% of abortions while making up 70.4% of the
41 Dr. Alveda King at Jd. at 1:06:04 to 1:06:24
42 Arialdi M. Minino, et al., Deaths: Final data for 2008.
National vital statistics reports; Vol. 59 No. 10. Hyattsville,
MD: National Center for Health Statistics. 2011 available at
http://bit.ly/CDC-DEATHS; and Guttmacher Institute,
National Reproductive Health Profile,
http://bit.ly/2008NatiStats (last visted February 2, 2016)
43 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Abortion
Surveillance - United States, 2010,
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/
mmwrhtm/I/ss6208a1.htm#tab12 (last visited on February 2,
2016.); Texas Dept. of State Health Services, Texas Population,
2010 (Historical Race Ethnicity Categories),
http://www.dshs.state.tx.us/chs/popdat/ST2010.shtm (last
visited February 2, 2010);
24
Texas population.‘ For this number to be
proportional, it would need to more than double.
African-Americans came in at 24.9% of Texas
abortions, although they only make 11.8% of the
state population.*
Texas has 94 Zip codes with at least one abortion
facility. Of those, only 22 are not disproportionately
black and/or Hispanic. Appendix A demonstrates
this data in chart form. In sum, HB2 would protect
minority women the most in Texas.
CONCLUSION
For the reasons set forth above, this Court
should uphold HB2 as consonant with this Court’s
jurisprudence in this area and protective of minority
women directly and their offspring indirectly
through its potential effects.
Respectfully submitted,
MORSE TAN, ESQ.
Counsel of Record
27W 156 Fleming Dr
Winfield, IL 60190
(512) 289-5973
morsetan@gmail.com
February 3, 2016
44 Td.
45 Id.
Appendix
APPENDIX TABLE OF CONTENTS
Appendix A: Excerpt from 2011 Report by Life
Dynamics Imcorporated .........cccccccscccsssscscsescccevesccceeees
la
Appendix A
Excerpt from 2011 Report
by Life Dynamics Incorporated
Racial Targeting and Population Control
By Mark Crutcher | President, Life Dynamics
Incorporated
Carole Novielli | Researcher
Renee Hobbs | Production Assistant
Chart 1 - Planned Parenthood Locations
Note: In this chart as well as the one that
follows, some ZIP codes show a percentage of
minorities that exceeds 100%. This occured
because a small number of Hispanics identify
themselves as both black and Hispanic and
are, therefore, counted twice by the Census
Bureau. This phenomenon is rare and was
identified in fewer than 10 of the ZIP codes
included in this study.
Black Population 11.5%
TEXAS Hispanic Population 32.0%
75069
75074
75074
75090
75110
75150
75150
75160
75165
75231
75231
75237
75254
75460
75701
75904
76010
76015
76021
76028
76104
76114
76116
9.5%
8.1%
8.1%
12.8%
19.4%
10.4%
10.4%
24.0%
13.3%
27.2%
27.2%
88.6%
9.8%
23.3%
21.1%
18.8%
16.0%
10.1%
2a
499
111.3%
re
= 168.6%
208.6%
115.6%
236.5%
236.5%
770.4%
202.6%
183.4%
163.4%
139.1%
497.3%
155.6%
15.4%
19.0%
16.1%
16.1%
14.5%
18.8%
40.5%
40.5%
7.3%
40.4%
41%
10.5%
11.9%
76119
76205
76240
76642
76661
76701
76706
76901
77023
77037
77068
77081
77340
77471
77477
77539
77802
78201
78212
78217
78223
78227
78237
55.5%
7.9%
4.3%
17.9%
41.5%
27.7%
13.1%
3.2%
1.8%
3.0%
13.0%
9.0%
18.7%
7.4%
16.6%
10.7%
6.1%
1.9%
2.5%
9.3%
4.3%
7.9%
2.8%
3a
360.8%
240.8%
113.9%
113.0%
162.6%
144.3%
———eeeee
23.2%
11.5%
12.4%
14.2%
16.4%
22.8%
28.1%
26.5%
86.0%
64.0%
13.6%
71.3%
13.3%
53.1%
27.2%
22.5%
11.0%
82.0%
61.0%
31.1%
67.3%
63.7%
94.5%
268.7%
200.0%
222.8%
165.9%
78238
78332
78363
78501
78521
78521
78539
78539
78550
4a
59.9%
79.5%
66.2%
84.0%
93.4%
93.4%
89.7%
89.7%
74.3%
CHART 2 - INDEPENDENT ABORTION
CLINIC LOCATIONS
75205
75231
75235
75243
76108
76110
76542
77002
77004
77008
77026
1.6%
4.8%
6.2%
40.5%
70.3%
14.4%
12.6%
62.8%
14.8%
22.0%
11.8%
43.2%
3 1.1%
126.5%
219.6%
196.2%
135.0%
77057
77074
77074
77076
77090
77098
77401
77707
78212
78212
78222
78238
78240
78240
78404
78501
78550
78704
78750
78753
79902
79902
4.7%
20.4%
20.4%
8.0%
17.5%
2.2%
1.0%
23.9%
2.5%
2.5%
22.4%
4.7%
5.3%
5.3%
1.9%
72.3%
18.4%
17.8%
7.9%
7.2%
61.0%
61.0%
44. 0%
76.1%
135.0%
135.0%
225.9%
190.6%
187.1%
132.8%
132.8%
201.8%
262.5%
232.1%
106.2%
120.3%
237.8%
237.8%
This is a copy of a public record, reproduced as it was published. It is not legal advice, and it may not be the version a court would rely on. Check the official source before you cite it.