Stephen Breyer’s Unique Legacy on Abortion

His Supreme Court successor should keep in mind the power of digging deep into data — and reminding all the justices how their rulings would affect real Americans.

Opinion by MARY ZIEGLER
01/28/2022

Justice Stephen Breyer is scheduled to leave the Supreme Court just as his conservative colleagues are poised to dismantle a key part of his legacy: the court’s approach to a right to choose abortion.

Breyer’s name might not immediately come to mind when anyone thinks about abortion rights. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the late feminist icon, was arguably the court’s most eloquent defender of reproductive rights. Justice Sonia Sotomayor has taken on that role in the current court. Justice Anthony Kennedy, who long cast the swing vote in abortion cases, helped both to save abortion rights in 1992 and to water down protections for them, holding that abortion regulations would be unconstitutional only if they created an “undue burden.”

Continued: https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/01/28/steve-breyens-supremecourt-replacement-abortion-data-00000019

How the Supreme Court could overrule Roe v. Wade without overruling Roe v. Wade

Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization is an existential threat to Roe — even if the Court doesn’t use the words “Roe v. Wade is overruled.”

By Ian Millhiser
Nov 29, 2021

Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which the Supreme Court will hear on Wednesday, is the single greatest threat to abortion rights since Roe v. Wade was handed down in 1973. It involves a Mississippi law that prohibits nearly all abortions after the 15th week of pregnancy, a law which violates the Supreme Court’s holding in Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992) that “a State may not prohibit any woman from making the ultimate decision to terminate her pregnancy before viability.”

“Viability” refers to the moment when a fetus can live outside of the womb, which typically occurs around the 24th week of pregnancy. (It’s worth noting that, while Mississippi’s law is often described as a “15-week” ban, the law provides that the 15-week clock starts ticking on “the first day of the last menstrual period of the pregnant woman.” So, in practice, the law functions more like a 13-week abortion ban.)

Continued: https://www.vox.com/2021/11/29/22796446/supreme-court-roe-wade-abortion-dobbs-jackson-womens-health-organization-overrule

The Supreme Court just took a case that poses a major threat to Roe v. Wade

The case is the biggest threat to abortion rights to arise since Amy Coney Barrett joined the Court.

By Ian Millhiser
May 17, 2021

The Supreme Court announced on Monday that it will hear Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, a challenge to a Mississippi law that prohibits nearly all abortions after the 15th week of pregnancy. That means that Dobbs will be the first abortion case to be fully briefed and argued before the Supreme Court since Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation last October.

Barrett is an outspoken opponent of abortion, and she joined a Court that almost certainly already had five votes to roll back abortion rights before her confirmation gave Republicans a 6-3 majority on the Supreme Court.

Continued: https://www.vox.com/2021/5/17/22233440/supreme-court-abortion-roe-wade-dobbs-jackson-womens-health-amy-coney-barrett

Unprecedented Surge in Anti-Abortion Laws Proposed and Passed Across the U.S.

5/4/2021
by CARRIE N. BAKER

In the first four months of 2021, anti-abortion lawmakers introduced 536 abortion restrictions in 46 states, including 146 abortion bans, according to a report released by the Guttmacher Institute on Friday. They enacted 61 restrictions in 13 states, including eight bans that would go into effect if the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade. Governors signed 28 restrictions into law in eight states just last week.

Continued: https://msmagazine.com/2021/05/04/anti-abortion-laws-texas-arizona-arkansas-indiana-west-virginia-kentucky-oklahoma-south-dakota-wyoming/

USA – Supreme Court conservatives want to topple abortion rights — but can’t seem to agree on how

By Joan Biskupic, CNN legal analyst & Supreme Court biographer
Fri March 19, 2021

(CNN) Conservative Supreme Court justices have demonstrated a desire to reverse prior decisions on abortion rights. The question, with Chief Justice John Roberts no longer the undisputed swing vote on abortion, is when and how far at least five justices will go to overturn rulings that support a constitutional right to end a pregnancy.

The aims of individual justices, based on their recent writings, range from reversing Roe v. Wade to forbidding clinics from challenging restrictions on behalf of women to relaxing the standard that states must meet to limit women's access to the procedure.

Continued: https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/19/politics/abortion-supreme-court-conservatives-thomas-roberts/index.html

’A crisis moment’: States, advocates brace for new fight over abortion rights

Driving the burst of activity is the rightward shift of the Supreme Court, which has cast uncertainty on the future of Roe v. Wade.

Jan. 11, 2021
By Chloe Atkins

With reproductive rights in the spotlight after the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett last fall, conservative and liberal states are even more divided over abortion.

Across the South and the Midwest, Republican legislators have introduced laws that would limit abortions or try to ban them altogether in hope of undermining decades of precedent. At the same time, Democratic-led states are cementing abortion rights and making abortions more accessible.

Continued: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/crisis-moment-states-advocates-brace-new-fight-over-abortion-rights-n1253665

This Is the Case That Could Bring Down Roe v. Wade

Amy Coney Barrett has only been a Supreme Court justice for a few weeks, and she’s already facing a test on abortion.

By Carter Sherman
8.12.20

Amy Coney Barrett has only been a Supreme Court justice for a little over a month, but the high court is already facing a case that could give the conservative darling a chance to dismantle abortion rights across much of the United States.

The Supreme Court announced Monday that the justices will meet on Friday to talk about whether to hear the case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which involves a 2018 Mississippi law that banned all abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. The law allows for abortions in medical emergencies or in cases of a severe fetal abnormality, but there are no exceptions for rape or incest.

Continued: https://www.vice.com/en/article/pkdk8n/this-is-the-case-that-could-bring-down-roe-v-wade

USA – Finding an Abortion Clinic Just Got a Lot Easier

9/25/2020
by ISABELLA DALLY-STEELE

Mallory McPherson-Wehan remembers sitting on her friend’s living room floor, scouring the internet for abortion clinics. Her friend, a senior in high school at the time, had found out earlier that day that she was pregnant and made the decision to abort; the only question that remained was where she would go to do so.

“We had no option other than Google,” McPherson-Wehan, who is a volunteer at the DC Abortion Fund told Ms. So Google, they did.

Continued: https://msmagazine.com/2020/09/25/finding-an-abortion-clinic-just-got-a-lot-easier/

USA – The Supreme Court is already considering another threat to abortion rights

The Trump administration could force abortion patients to have unnecessary surgeries.

By Ian Millhiser
Sep 9, 2020

Last June, Chief Justice John Roberts provided a brief reprieve to abortion providers — joining his liberal colleagues in striking down a Louisiana anti-abortion law. But that reprieve could be very short-lived: A case now before the justices could give them a vehicle to undercut the right to terminate a pregnancy. If the Trump administration gets its way in
Food and Drug Administration v. American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the Supreme Court could force many patients seeking abortions to undergo unnecessary surgeries, despite the fact that those patients could safely terminate their pregnancy with medication — and that’s assuming that these individuals are able to find a doctor to perform the surgery in the first place.

Continued: https://www.vox.com/2020/9/9/21426056/supreme-court-abortion-american-college-obstetricians-gynecologists-surgery-trump-john-roberts

USA – Supreme Court’s split decision for abortion rights gives opponents an unlikely boost

Richard Wolf
Aug 31, 2020, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court's decision in June striking down a Louisiana restriction on abortion clinics is giving abortion opponents an unlikely opportunity in other states.

Officials in Texas, Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky and Oklahoma have in recent weeks argued that the high court's 5-4 ruling actually bolsters their defense of anti-abortion laws, even though the justices ruled against Louisiana.

Continued: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/08/31/abortion-supreme-courts-ruling-abortion-rights-boosts-opponents/5624869002/