LOUISIANA— In a 5-4 ruling made by the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) on June 29, an abortion law that would have restricted the availability women had to clinics in Louisiana was denied.
June Medical Services LLC v. Russo, Interim Secretary, Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals was argued on March 4 with a decision finally made Monday, June 29 which was outlined in a 138-page document.
The law in question proposed that abortion providers would have to have special admitting privileges into local hospitals. The state of Louisiana adopted the law in 2014, where it passed and was administered until being halted by federal courts in 2016.
An almost word-for-word law was implemented in Texas, resulting in the Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt case.
Chief Justice John Roberts was the official deciding vote stating: “The law would reduce the number of clinics from three to ‘one, or at most two,’ and the number of physicians providing abortions from five to ‘one, or at most two,’ and ‘therefore cripple women’s ability to have an abortion in Louisiana.'”
Among those who dissented the final ruling, Justice Brett Kavanuagh stated that the issue in the court case concerns the “proper” way to decide on state abortion laws. Kavanuagh further states that more research should be done to decide if the Louisiana law would have the same impacts on abortion clinics as it has in Texas:
“But I respectfully dissent from the second because, in my view, additional fact-finding is necessary to properly evaluate Louisiana’s law,” he stated. “In short, I agree with Justice Alito that the Court should remand the case for a new trial and additional fact-finding under the appropriate legal standards.”
