Game Changer: Supreme Court is Ready to Hear Louisiana Pro-Life Case

Last Friday, October 4, 2019, the Supreme Court announced that it would take up a pro-life Louisiana law, making it the first time the high court will review an abortion case since Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh joined the Supreme Court. If the justices uphold Louisiana’s law, the state will then become the seventh in the country with only one abortion clinic.

The law that is currently being reviewed is virtually identical to the one that the Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional back in 2016. In February, the court said that it would closely examine the case when it agreed to block the law requiring doctors who carry out abortions to have admitting privileges at a hospital close by.

Abortion rights groups quickly responded to the Supreme Court’s announcement.

“Louisiana is openly defying the Supreme Court’s decision from just three years ago, in which they found an identical Texas law unconstitutional,” stated Nancy Northup, the president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights. This group is actively challenging Louisiana’s law.

Northup added, “We are counting on the Court to follow its precedent, otherwise, clinics will needlessly close and there will be just one doctor left in the entire state to provide abortion care.”

With one of the most conservative Supreme Courts in recent memory, abortion has been challenged by states throughout the South and Midwest. BLP reported on Alabama’s heartbeat law which received national attention for its passage.

This is part of a larger ploy by pro-life activists to overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark Supreme Court case in 1973 which legalized abortion nationwide.

By overturning this decision, tenth amendment rights would be restored and pro-life states could be given the autonomy they need to craft their own pro-life policies.