Wednesday the US Supreme Court takes up a case that could change the abortion battle in a fundamental way, potentially allowing state lawmakers across the nation to enact more-restrictive regulations on a woman's right to choose abortion.
The case, Ayotte v. Planned Parenthood of Northern New England, examines the constitutionality of a New Hampshire law requiring teenage girls to notify at least one parent before obtaining abortions. It carries broad implications for reproductive rights nationwide, and could be a turning point in a debate that has divided the country for more than three decades.
Instead of seeking to overturn the landmark decision in Roe v. Wade, the case marks a change in tactics by antiabortion forces trying to narrow and constrain the reach of the 1973 abortion precedent. . . .
[W]hile the case does not threaten the central holding of Roe v. Wade, analysts are watching to see if the court's conservatives - and new Chief Justice John Roberts - are willing to use the New Hampshire case to topple a pillar of O'Connor's abortion jurisprudence.In decisions since 1992, O'Connor has insisted that the Constitution requires invalidation of state laws that create an "undue burden" on a woman's right to an abortion when the procedure is necessary to preserve her health.
Lawmakers in New Hampshire deliberately excluded a broad health exception from their parental-notification law. Abortion-rights groups say the exclusion renders the law unconstitutional. A federal judge and a federal appeals court panel agreed. . . .
[M]s. Ayotte and US Solicitor General Paul Clement are arguing that abortion laws should be subject to the same test that courts use to judge the constitutionality of all other statutes. To prevail in striking down a law in its entirety, those challenging it must prove that the law is invalid in all its applications, not just some applications.
The federal judge and appeals court panel that struck down the New Hampshire statute did not use that standard. Rather, they read O'Connor's "undue burden" standard as creating a constitutional bar to laws that substantially hinder a woman's right to obtain an abortion.
If a majority of justices embrace the more rigorous standard, it would be significantly harder for abortion-rights activists to immediately challenge abortion restrictions in court. In many cases they would have to wait until a pregnant woman was harmed in some concrete way by a restriction. Even then, only a portion of the statute might be struck down, not the entire abortion law.
Details here from the Christian Science Monitor.