The U.S. Supreme Court handed the pro-choice community a major victory Monday in a much-watched abortion case, striking down a Louisiana law that required clinic doctors to have admitting privileges at local hospitals.
The law was similar to a Texas law overturned by the Supreme Court in 2016 that required abortion doctors to have admitting privileges at a hospital located within 30 miles of the clinic. The high court voted 5-4 to strike down the Texas law, with Chief Justice John Roberts voting with the conservative bloc in the minority.
Pro-lifers believed they might have the votes this time, since Justice Anthony Kennedy – who voted with the majority in 2016 – had been replaced by Brett Kavanaugh.
But on Monday, Roberts flipped sides and joined the liberal bloc, arguing the Supreme Court must abide by precedent. Roberts concurred only in the judgment and wrote a separate concurring opinion.
The Texas case was Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt.
“I joined the dissent in Whole Woman’s Health and continue to believe that the case was wrongly decided,” Roberts wrote. “The question today however is not whether Whole Woman’s Health was right or wrong, but whether to adhere to it in deciding the present case. … Adherence to precedent is necessary to ‘avoid an arbitrary discretion in the courts.'”
Pro-lifers say the law makes clinics safer for women if complications…
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