Ginsburg and her female colleagues were far from convinced. When Keller pointed to the biggest, most populous cities in the great state of Texas -- where clinics are complying with the law -- as proof that the procedure would remain available elsewhere if the court upheld the law, Ginsburg took him to task for what is likely the state's weakest argument.
"Well, how many women are located over 100 miles from the nearest clinic?" she asked.
That's when the slow and painful unraveling of Keller began. He conceded that "25 percent" of women -- by which he meant roughly 1.5 million -- do. To him that was no harm, no foul. He reasoned that some women could always go to nearby New Mexico, which doesn't have the same restrictions on abortion clinics as Texas.
"That's odd that you point to the New Mexico facility," Ginsburg shot back. "If your argument is right, then New Mexico is not an available way out for Texas, because Texas says to protect our women, we need these things." Instead, she said, the state proposed to "send them off" to New Mexico, whose clinics are not subject to any of Texas' health-conscious regulations.
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