Since Roe was decided in 1973, there have been countless efforts by anti-abortion activists to enact state laws that restrict abortion rights, often in the guise of protecting women’s health. But few laws have gone as far as the Texas statute, which places so heavy a burden on hundreds of thousands of women across the state — particularly those in poorer rural areas — that it has effectively destroyed their constitutional right to an abortion.

Lawmakers claimed that the law, which requires abortion clinics to meet the strict standards of ambulatory surgical centers and their doctors to have admitting privileges at local hospitals, was necessary to protect women’s health. Everyone knows this is a lie. Even the law’s backers have openly admitted