The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear a case against a Louisiana law that requires abortion providers to have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital—nearly identical to requirements under Texas’ House Bill 2 that the Supreme Court struck down three years ago as constituting an undue burden on abortion access. This is the first abortion case the Court has taken up since Brett Kavanaugh cemeted the conservative majority that anti-abortion activists hope will eventually overturn Roe v. Wade.
The 2014 Louisiana law—which would bring the number of abortion providers in the state down to one—was permanently blocked in 2017 by a federal judge who cited the Texas case, but a 2-1 decision in 2018 from the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the lower court’s ruling. Louisiana’s abortion providers appealed the case, June Medical Services v. Gee, to the Supreme Court, which will hear it this term, with a decision likely next summer.
Despite there being clear and recent Supreme Court precedent against a virtually identical law, the appeals judges argued that the impact of such restrictions in Louisiana would be less burdensome than in Texas, and therefore constitutional. Abortion-rights advocates argue that admitting privileges are unnecessary because the procedure is safe and rarely requires hospitalization. Making this a requirement is a backhanded way to limit abortion access, they say, because hospitals often decline to offer them due to opposition to abortion or because the doctors are unlikely to actually admit patients to hospitals. Opponents of the law are glad the Supreme Court intervened rather than let the Fifth Circuit’s ruling remain. But, they argue, the justices could have just reversed the court’s ruling, blocking the law. By taking up the case, conservative judges could further chip away at abortion access across the country.
