High Court Sidesteps Abortion Issue
The Supreme Court ruled today in Ayotte v. Planned Parenthood of Northern New England. (opinion here in pdf). In the opinion, authored by Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, the Court made it clear they were not writing new law on abortion. At issue was the New Hampshire parental notification law which the lower court had struck down as unconstitutional.
Rather than decide the issue, the Supreme Court said there were problems with the law and sent it back to the lower courts.
ScotusBlog opines that the decision could be viewed as limiting abortion rights:
If, in fact, that is the way the decision is applied by lower courts in this and other cases, it could amount to a narrowing of abortion rights. That is because it would amount as a legal matter to less reliance upon an individual doctor's professional judgment in individual cases, especially when the abortion option is not considered in a truly emergency situation, but is only deemed medically advisable for a given patient.
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