PRESS RELEASE
Washington, DC – In a 5-4 vote, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a Louisiana law that required abortionists to maintain local hospital privileges. This ruling in June Medical Services v. Russo has left women vulnerable to abortionists who travel from state to state, dumping women on emergency rooms when things go wrong.
Chief Justice John Roberts flipped to join the leftist majority against the Louisiana safety law similar to one he voted to uphold in the 2016 Whole Women’s Health v. Hellerstedt case.
“Once again the U.S. Supreme Court has chosen to betray the trust of women, leaving them defenseless against what is tantamount to patient abandonment and potentially fatal breaks in their continuity of care by what we call traveling ‘Fly-By-Night’ abortionists,” said Operation Rescue President Troy Newman, whose organization documents medical emergencies at abortion facilities. “Abortionists oppose hospital privilege requirements because they know they cannot meet the high standards hospitals require, and because they understand that their botched abortions pose a liabilities that hospitals are hesitant to assume.”
Operation Rescue filed an amicus brief in this case supporting the Louisiana law.
Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, and Brett Kavanaugh all dissented, and each wrote their own dissenting opinion.
Justice Thomas wrote, “Today a majority of the Court perpetuates its ill-founded abortion jurisprudence by enjoining a perfectly legitimate state law and doing so without jurisdiction.”
Thomas explained that abortionists and abortion facilities, not women who were impaired in their so-called right to take the lives of their unborn babies.
“Their sole claim before this Court is that Louisiana’s law violates the purported substantive due process right of a woman to abort her unborn child. But they concede that this right does not belong to them, and they seek to vindicate no private rights of their own. Under a proper understanding of Article III, these plaintiffs lack standing to invoke our jurisdiction,” Justice Thomas concluded.
“We expect that today’s ruling will only add to abortion dangers for women and may result in an increase of abortions in the U.S.,” said Newman. “This is a tragedy that we lay at the doorstep of Justice Roberts, who actually knows better, but has decided to put his alliance with leftist activist justices above protecting the public from harm. His part in this travesty is a disgrace!”
