Supreme Court Ruling on Abortion Begins to Ripple Across States

NEW YORK — One day after the Supreme Court’s most important decision on abortion in decades, the Court’s ruling is already having an impact on similar restrictions in other states.

The Supreme Court announced today that it would not review two lower court decisions blocking abortion restrictions similar to one of the restrictions struck down yesterday. The two cases the Court refused to hear required abortion providers in Wisconsin and Mississippi to have admitting privileges at a local hospital.

Additionally, late yesterday the Alabama Attorney General announced that the state would no longer attempt to defend its admitting privileges requirement.

Jennifer Dalven, director of the Reproductive Freedom Project at the American Civil Liberties Union, had this response:

“The Supreme Court’s decision made crystal clear that laws like Alabama, Mississippi, and Wisconsin’s that rely on sham justifications to prevent a woman from having an abortion are unconstitutional. But this is just the start: for many women the constitutional right to an abortion is still more theoretical than real. There is much more work to be done to ensure that every woman who needs an abortion can actually get one.”

Cecile Richards, president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America had this reaction:

“As the news in Alabama, Wisconsin, and Mississippi shows, yesterday’s landmark ruling was just the beginning. This decision has opened the door to go state by state, legislature by legislature, law by law, and restore access to safe, legal abortion. These unconstitutional laws punish women by blocking safe medical care ­­ and they will not stand. We will not stop fighting until every person can make their own personal medical decisions about abortion no matter who she is, or where she lives.”

The Alabama and Wisconsin cases were brought by attorneys the American Civil Liberties Union and from Planned Parenthood Federation of America. The cases in Mississippi and Texas were brought by the Center for Reproductive Rights.