Louisiana Anti-Abortion Law Overturned By US Supreme Court

On Monday, the Supreme Court ruled on its first abortion case since Donald Trump's presidential term started in 2016. The 5-4 survivor ruling concluded that a Louisiana law imposing certain restrictions on abortion clinics would unduly burden women.

According to the published report, the law would have closed nearly every clinic in the state of Louisiana. Chief Justice John Roberts casted the deciding vote and surprisingly sided with four of the court's liberals who argued that the barring doctors from performing the procedure unless they had admitting privileges was not medically necessary, and would only have been an attempt to restrict abortion.

A Texas law that is similar to this law reached the same conclusion in 2016 but it can be recalled that Roberts dissented it. Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh who is one of the dissenters of the said law remained firm in his stand and was one of the four justices who dissented the ruling.

The shift in Roberts' opinion was explained citing that the high court precedents based on findings regarding the law's projected impact must be followed.

Nominated as Chief Justice by President George W. Bush in 2005, Roberts' has been a swing voter to date. The records show that he previously sided with liberal justices in two recent major decisions such as the protection against workplace discrimination for LGBTQ+ employees and protection for 650,000 undocumented immigrants in the U.S.

Reportedly, the controlling opinion was written by Associate Justice Stephen Breyer who cited that the concerned law offered "no significant health-related benefits" to women seeking an abortion.

Supporters of anti-abortion rights may have lost in the said ruling but opinions have been written citing that the battle will continue as more abortion cases will be thrown to the court in the future. It is said that these disputes will ultimately affect the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision which legalized abortion in the country.

Marjorie Dannenfelser who is president of Susan B. Anthony List called the ruling "a bitter disappointment."

Meanwhile, Nancy Northup who leads the Center for Reproductive Rights said that they will continue to fight state by state, law by law to fight those who are bent on banning abortion.

Over the past eight years, a third of abortion clinics have been closed by state laws, and the current count of abortion clinics has been down to less than 350 as per the Abortion Care Network who reported that five states in the U.S. have been limited to only one abortion clinic.