The United States Supreme Court has surprisingly struck down the Louisiana abortion law that required abortion doctors to have admitting privileges hospitals within 30 miles of a clinic. Enforcement of that abortion law had been blocked in a continuing legal battle that has made its way to the Supreme Court.
If not overturned, the controversial and conservative law would have effectively left just one single doctor at one single clinic to provide services for approximately 10,000 women looking for abortions in Louisiana every year, and shut down two of the three remaining abortion clinics in Louisiana.
In a 5-4 decision, Chief Justice John Roberts dissented in the otherwise party-line vote, joining the Liberals.
Roberts had previously dissented in the similar Supreme Court Texas case, which he voting to uphold the law, and voted to honor the precedent, “The legal doctrine of stare decisis requires us, absent special circumstances, to treat like cases alike. The Louisiana law imposes a burden on access to abortion just as severe as that imposed by the Texas law, for the same reasons. Therefore Louisiana’s law cannot stand under our precedent,” John Roberts said.
Although Roberts said he thought the law was too similar to the Texas law, which guided his decision, in his concurring opinion the Chief Justice seemed to have left the door open for other states in the future to attempt to pass similar laws that are different enough, and under different circumstances, that could allow them to impose restrictions on abortions for pregnant residents.
