The Supreme Court decided Monday against Louisiana’s restrictive abortion law, in a key victory for abortion rights.
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The conservatively biased court divided 5-4 the decision overriding a state law requiring doctors at abortion clinics to have admission ‘privileges’ at nearby hospitals. In other words, those doctors had to see patients at local medical centers (at least within a 30-mile diameter), something that dramatically reduced the number of doctors available to perform abortions.
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With this ruling, that law that would have left the state with only one abortion clinic was repealed. The head of the court, magistrate John Roberts, considered conservative, joined the group’s vote identified as liberals.
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Louisiana law was very similar to the Texas statute that the Supreme Court struck down in 2016, so it was expected that the highest court would follow the precedent that marked its previous decision.
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But as the Supreme Court has become more conservative since then, with Trump-era appointments, this case was seen as new ‘proof’ of abortion rights.
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“The legal doctrine stare decisis (“Stand up for things decided”) requires us, in the absence of special circumstances, to treat similar cases equally … Louisiana law imposes a burden on access to abortion as severe as that imposed by Texas law, for the same reasons. Therefore, Louisiana law cannot be sustained under our precedents, “wrote Roberts.
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Failure
Roberts details in his decision: “Today’s case is a challenge by various abortion clinics and providers to a Louisiana law almost identical to the Texas law that was repealed four years ago … Like Texas law, Louisiana law requires that doctors who perform abortions have active admission privileges in a hospital … located no more than thirty miles from where the abortion is performed. “
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“After a six-day trial, the District Court determined that the Louisiana law ‘would result in a drastic reduction in the number and geographic distribution of abortion providers’ … The law would reduce the number of health clinics three to ‘one, or a maximum of two’, and the number of doctors who perform abortions from five to ‘one, or a maximum of two’, and therefore paralyzes the ability of women to abort in Louisiana, “adds the judge.
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More information soon …
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