Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Stakes high on abortion debate
Supreme Court case from Louisiana set for arguments Wednesday
SHREVEPORT — The Hope Medical Group for Women in northern Louisiana fields phone calls every day from anxious pregnant women who ask if abortion is still legal and if the clinic, one of only three that provides abortions in the state, is still open.
Despite the protesters who sometimes gather outside, the threats that forced the clinic to board up all the windows and the repeated restrictions put upon abortion providers in this staunchly anti-abortion state, the clinic stands. Abortion remains legal in Louisiana and elsewhere in the United States. But a Supreme Court case set for arguments Wednesday could lead to the clinic’s closing and, more fundamentally, a retreat from protecting the right to abortion that the high court first announced in 1973.
The case is just one in a series of high-stakes disputes the more conservative court, now with two appointees of President Donald Trump, is expected to decide by late June as the 2020 election campaign gathers steam.
“We’re fighting this as hard as we possibly can. And for now, all three clinics are still open. And for now, abortion is still legal in all 50 states,” said Hope’s administrator, Kathaleen Pittman.
Pittman tries to keep her focus on the women who come through the door every day — generally poor women who are forced to travel increasingly longer distances as other clinics in Louisiana and neighboring states have closed. Pittman estimates as many as 80% of the women who come in get financial assistance to help pay for the abortion.
They travel from 200 miles or even 300 miles away and from neighboring states to do a state-mandated counseling session and then return another day to have the abortion, Pittman said.
“I’ve been here for 27 years. And the constant refrain we hear regarding the reason for terminating a pregnancy has always been primarily lack of financial resources. People are broke,” she said. “It’s the women who have the least that are going to suffer the most.”
Anti-abortion groups, the Trump administration and members of Congress hope the court will take its first steps to roll back protections for abortion and uphold a Louisiana law that would require doctors at abortion clinics to have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital. “This case is about the health and safety of women,” said state Sen. Katrina Jackson, a Democrat who sponsored the 2014 law.
More than 200 members of Congress, almost all Republican, suggest in a court filing that the court could go further and overrule the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision.
States have passed dozens of abortion restrictions in recent years, including measures that would ban abortion as early as six weeks into a pregnancy. Those laws have so far been blocked by courts.
The issue of abortion providers’ relationship with local hospitals is familiar to the high court because in 2016, the court struck down a similar law from Texas.
The only thing that has changed since then is the makeup of the Supreme Court, notably Trump’s appointment of Justice Brett
Kavanaugh to take the place of the retired Justice Anthony Kennedy. Trump pledged to appoint “pro-life justices” and his opposition to abortion has been crucial to his support among socially conservative voters.
The outcome, though, will likely come down to the vote of one man, Chief Justice John Roberts. Roberts has mainly voted in favor of abortion restrictions, including joining the dissent in 2016 that would have upheld the Texas law. But he cast the decisive vote a year ago to prevent the Louisiana law from being enforced while the legal case played out.
Roberts did not explain his vote. But it is extremely rare for a justice to cast the key vote in a case at a preliminary stage and then vote the other way later on.