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BREAKING: Supreme Court announces it will hear Louisiana abortion case
WASHINGTON, DC—The U.S. Supreme Court announced today that it will consider abortion for the first time in three years.
The U.S. Supreme announced today that it will hear the petition filed by June Medical Services, a Louisiana abortion business, and the cross-petition filed by the State of Louisiana. The cases provide the Court with the first opportunity to speak to the abortion issue since the Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedtdecision three years ago, and potentially the continued viability of the so-called "constitutional right" to abortion imposed in Roe v. Wade (1973) and affirmed in Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992).
EXPLAINER: AUL Litigation Counsel Rachel N. Morrison answers, "What's going on with Louisiana, abortion, and the Supreme Court?"
“Americans United for Life welcomes the Supreme Court’s decision to review both the commonsense Louisiana admitting privileges law and the legal question whether an abortionist should be able to stand in the shoes of his patients to challenge a medical requirement that is designed to protect 'them' from 'him,'” said AUL’s President, Catherine Glenn Foster. “Louisiana’s long and sordid history of dirty and dangerous abortion chains being shuttered one by one in order to protect women from fly-by-night and dangerous abortionists should tell the Court all it needs to know, both about the strong and necessary legal benefits of this law and the dubious right of abortionists to sue to overturn laws designed to protect their own patients.”
LISTEN: Catherine Glenn Foster and Steven H. Aden reflect on the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to consider abortion for the first time in three years.
June Medical’s petition seeks review of the constitutionality of a Louisiana law requiring all abortion doctors to have admitting privileges—the ability to directly admit a patient from the abortion clinic into a nearby hospital when an abortion goes terribly wrong—within thirty miles of their abortion facility. The U.S. Supreme Court held a similar Texas provision unconstitutional in Hellerstedt in 2016, but did not rule on the overall validity of such provisions. Louisiana now argues that since its admitting privileges law would leave abortion centers open in both major population centers in the state, it does not create an “undue burden” on abortion access in Louisiana in violation of Casey.
Louisiana’s cross-petition argues that the abortion center, June Medical, should not have the right to sue in court on behalf of women seeking abortion, since the law it challenges is designed to protect women from shoddy and substandard abortion practices. AUL filed a friend of the Court brief in support of Louisiana’s cross-petition, detailing numerous horrific violations of basic health and safety standards by abortion businesses in the state.
The cases are June Medical Services v. Gee, Sup.Ct. No. 18-1323, and Gee v. June Medical Services, Sup.Ct. No. 18-1460.'
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