Supreme Court to Tackle Major Abortion Case

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WASHINGTON (ChurchMilitant.com) - The Supreme Court is hearing its first abortion case of the 2019–2020 term with many pro-life and abortion activists expecting it to lead to the eventual overturn of Roe v. Wade.

On Friday, the High Court announced it will hear the case of June Medical Services, LLC v. Gee involving the 2014 Louisiana law — called Act 620 — requiring abortionists to have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of an abortion mill.

Abortion activists complained the law would put all but one abortion facility out of business. An almost identical law was passed at the same time in Texas; the Supreme Court gave its attention to that law, with lower court judges waiting for the outcome.

In 2016, the High Court heard Whole Woman's Health v. Hellerstedt regarding Texas law HB 2 and ruled that the requirement for abortion mills performing surgical abortions to have hospital-grade facilities similar to medical clinics placed an "undue burden for women seeking abortion," striking down that portion of the law.

Following the High Court's decision, U.S. District Judge John deGravelles struck down Louisiana's Act 620 in April 2017, echoing the Supreme Court's decision, claiming it imposed an "undue burden" on women seeking out abortions.

"[E]vidence considering the 'real-world' context of abortion patients' poverty and transportation challenges, providers' fear of anti-abortion violence, pre-existing regulations, and other obstacles to abortion access were not previously considered and should have been," deGravelles noted in his 116-page ruling.

But now that Louisiana's law is going to the Supreme Court, some people are not so sure the court will rely on its previous rulings as precedent, especially since two of President Donald Trump's appointed judges now sit as justices.

In 2018, Trump appointed Brett Kavanaugh to succeed Justice Anthony Kennedy on the Supreme Court in July 2019. Democrats and the liberal media launched a campaign to discredit Kavanaugh, a campaign described by Trump as "vicious and despicable."

Kavanaugh blasted Democrats, saying, "This confirmation process has become a national disgrace," adding, "There has been a frenzy on the Left to come up with something, anything, to oppose my nomination."

In September, a video revealed Democrat opposition to Kavanaugh's confirmation was all about protecting abortion.

Debra Katz, the attorney for Kavanaugh accuser Christine Blasey Ford, admitted to a group of students at the University of Baltimore in April at a Feminist Legal Theory Conference that Kavanaugh "will always have an asterisk next to his name."

She continued, "When he takes a scalpel to Roe v. Wade, we will know who he is, we know his character, and we know what motivates him, and that is important; it is important that we know, and that is part of what motivated Christine [Blasey Ford]."

In January, a panel of judges dismissed all 83 ethics complaints against Kavanaugh, most of which were related to Ford's allegations that he sexually assaulted her in the 1980s when they were both in high school.

A large number of pro-life laws passed in states following Kavanaugh's confirmation, with six states — including Louisiana, Georgia, Mississippi, Ohio, Kentucky and Missouri — passing so-called heartbeat laws which forbid abortion after six weeks of gestation.

Seven states — including Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Dakota and South Dakota — have passed "trigger laws" which would completely outlaw abortion in the event the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade.

While states like Alaska, New Jersey and New Mexico already have laws allowing abortion through birth, New York and Illinois moved not only to do the same, but to forbid medical care to children born alive as a result of a botched abortion.

In 2019, Democratic lawmakers voted unanimously for infanticide, stopping Republican-led effort to mandate that children born alive be given life-saving medical help. But so far, in the 71 times Republicans have brought it up for a vote in the House, Democrats led by so-called Catholic legislator Nancy Pelosi have voted it down.

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