Washington, DC – On news this morning that the U.S. Supreme Court issued its ruling in Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt – striking down Texas’ abortion clinic shutdown laws as unconstitutional – Constitutional Accountability Center President Elizabeth Wydra issued the following reaction:

“Justice Breyer’s majority opinion powerfully demonstrates the true purpose and onerous burden that laws like these in Texas would have placed on the right of women to access abortion – a liberty protected by the Constitution and the Court’s precedents. In setting aside such clinic shutdown laws, Breyer correctly wrote for the Court, ‘[T]he challenged provisions close most of the abortion facilities in Texas’ and  ‘vastly increase the obstacles confronting women seeking abortions in Texas without providing any benefit to women’s health capable of withstanding any meaningful scrutiny.’  

“It is also interesting to note” Wydra continued, “as we anticipated in our brief, that Justices Kennedy and Ginsburg found common ground in joining today’s majority opinion. As the Court’s leading thinkers on issues of access to abortion services, their approach to questions of individual liberty and equality clearly weighed heavily against regulations like the Texas laws struck down today.”

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Resources:

CAC “friend of the court” brief in Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt: http://theusconstitution.org/cases/whole-woman%E2%80%99s-health-v-hellerstedt-us-sup-ct 

“The Supreme Court’s Choice on Abortion,” David H. Gans, The New Republic, March 2, 2016: https://newrepublic.com/article/131009/supreme-courts-choice-abortion 

“Faulty Federalism, Texas Edition: How Texas Hopes to Gut the Right to Abortion,” David H. Gans, Balkinization, February 29, 2016: http://balkin.blogspot.com/2016/02/faulty-federalism-texas-edition-how.html 

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Constitutional Accountability Center (www.theusconstitution.org) is a think tank, public interest law firm, and action center dedicated to fulfilling the progressive promise of the Constitution’s text and history.

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