{"id":98738,"date":"2018-07-14T14:35:18","date_gmt":"2018-07-14T20:35:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/supporters-opponents-of-abortion-rights-prep-for-u-s-supreme-court-fight\/"},"modified":"2018-07-14T14:35:18","modified_gmt":"2018-07-14T20:35:18","slug":"supporters-opponents-of-abortion-rights-prep-for-u-s-supreme-court-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/supporters-opponents-of-abortion-rights-prep-for-u-s-supreme-court-fight\/","title":{"rendered":"Supporters, opponents of abortion rights prep for U.S. Supreme Court fight"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Supporters
Supporters and opponents of the constitutionally guaranteed access to abortions are gearing up for the nomination fight to elevate Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court. Abortion-rights supporters fear and anti-abortion supporters are heartened by the chance that Kavanaugh\u2019s vote may be crucial in overturning Roe v. Wade.<\/span>Charles Dharapak\/Associated Press<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to sit on the U.S. Supreme Court has both sides of the abortion debate preparing for a political battle.<\/p>\n

Deeply held convictions about a constitutional right protecting access to abortions quickly renewed a familiar debate nationally and in La Plata County when Kavanaugh was nominated to replace Justice Anthony Kennedy on the U.S. Supreme Court.<\/p>\n

\"McLachlan\"
McLachlan<\/span>du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cThe question is whether Roe v. Wade is settled law. I\u2019ve been in law for 45 years, and Roe was decided in my second year of law school,\u201d said Michael McLachlan, a Durango attorney and former state representative. \u201cI think at this point, it\u2019s up in the constitutional air.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2000, McLachlan successfully argued to protect Colorado\u2019s \u201cBubble Bill\u201d before the Supreme Court. The high court upheld Colorado\u2019s law providing an 8-foot buffer zone around people entering or departing health clinics. The bill was designed to prevent anti-abortion protesters from approaching and interacting with women entering a clinic.<\/p>\n

The Supreme Court has been chipping away at access to abortion, McLachlan said. This term, he noted, the justices on a 5-4 vote struck down California\u2019s Reproductive FACT Act. The law required health clinics licensed by California to provide information about free or low-cost abortion services.<\/p>\n

The court\u2019s ruling said the California law violated free speech rights of Christian-based facilities by forcing them to advertise for abortion in violation of their religious beliefs.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe there\u2019s a reasonably good chance that the right to have a medically secure abortion is more at risk with Kavanaugh on the court than Kennedy,\u201d McLachlan said.<\/p>\n

Colorado loosened restrictions on legal abortions six years before the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court\u2019s Roe v. Wade ruling providing constitutionally protected access to abortions nationwide. The reversal of Roe would not immediately make abortion illegal. Instead, the issue would shift to the states to determine whether they would allow abortions to continue within their borders.<\/p>\n

Martha Sandner, executive director of LifeGuard, a Durango-based anti-abortion group that offers services to women during pregnancy and to women and children after birth, said Kavanaugh has \u201ca record of protecting religious freedom and the rights of the pre-born.\u201d<\/p>\n

Local anti-abortion advocates, she said, are signing national petitions online to back Kavanaugh\u2019s elevation to the Supreme Court, but no locally specific political activity to back Kavanaugh\u2019s nomination is underway.<\/p>\n

Sandner said she has no expectations that Roe v. Wade would be overturned with Kavanaugh on the court. But she added, \u201cWe always have hope, and it would be wonderful if it was overturned.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the other side of the political spectrum, Vicki Cowart, CEO of Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains, said, \u201cThe situation is dire.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said access to safe, legal abortions is vital for women.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not hyperbole to say women will die from this (overturning Roe),\u201d she said. \u201cWomen will still have abortions but under unsafe environments \u2013 even dying.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two generations of women, she said, have grown up with access to safe, legal abortions if they chose. \u201cMost women don\u2019t know what it was like in pre-Roe times,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She said Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains is contacting senators in its area of coverage \u2013 Colorado, New Mexico, Wyoming and the southern portion of Nevada \u2013 especially Republicans, to push opposition to Kavanaugh.<\/p>\n

Cowart said particular pressure is being placed on Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., to oppose Kavanaugh\u2019s nomination because he represents a state that is solidly for abortion rights and he is up for re-election this year.<\/p>\n

The day Kavanaugh was nominated, Cowart said, \u201cwas the day all of us who worked so hard on the 2016 election were fearful of. All of our fears came true.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leaving the legality of abortion up to the states, she said, is unacceptable for secure women\u2019s health.<\/p>\n

\u201cWomen should not have to depend on where they live or what ZIP code they are in to have access to all health care,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t do that with other liberties.\u201d<\/p>\n

parmijo@ durangoherald.com<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Durango lawyer says Roe\u2019s fate \u2018up in the constitutional air\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":98739,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[2612,13,265,22],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-98738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-abortion","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-politics","tag-us-supreme-court"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98738"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98738\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/98739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98738"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=98738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}