GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD) applauded today’s 5-3 decision by the United States Supreme Court striking down draconian restrictions that the state of Texas imposed on abortion providers in 2013.

GLAD and a coalition of 13 other LGBT, racial justice, and health equity organization filed an amicus brief in Whole Women’s Health v. Cole. The brief argued that the pseudo-science cited by Texas in its effort to prescribe women’s freedoms is similar to the pseudo-science that has been used throughout American history to exclude individuals and groups from the full protection of the constitution.

“We are thrilled that the fundamental freedoms at stake in this case have been protected,” said Janson Wu, Executive Director of GLAD. “Pseudo-science has too often been the last bastion of those who would discriminate, and the Court has seen through that flimsy pretext.”

Texas argued that the law protects the health of women seeking abortion, but the evidence at trial showed just the opposite. Medical organizations including the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the American Medical Association, and the American Public Health Association have explained that the restrictions imposed by the law endanger rather than advance women’s health.

In the not too distant past, pseudo-science was used to justify excluding women from certain professions, permitting the forced sterilization of those deemed “inferior”, criminalizing and discriminating against LGBTQ people, and banning interracial marriages.