Supreme Court agrees to take up first abortion case under Trump-appointed conservative judges

The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to review a restrictive Louisiana abortion law, marking the first test of its new conservative majority and setting up a major election-year showdown.

The justices will decide the constitutionality of a law requiring doctors who perform abortions to have admitting privileges at a local hospital. The controversial restriction is on hold and is similar to a Texas law that was struck by the court in 2016, before President Trump appointed Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh to the panel.

Arguments in the case will happen over the winter and a decision is likely to come in June, just months before the 2020 presidential election. It will be the first time Gorsuch and Kavanaugh rule on an abortion case.

Opponents of the Republican-backed ban have argued that it would force two of Louisiana's three abortion clinics to close, leaving as few as two doctors eligible to perform the procedure in the state. Critics say the law would place an "undue burden" on a woman's right to have an abortion, a standard set by the court in 1992.

"The law serves no medical purpose and would leave just one provider available for the whole state," the American Civil Liberties Union tweeted on Friday. "All of us, no matter where we live, should be able to access our constitutional right to abortion."

Abortion opponents welcomed the court's decision to examine the ban, which they say is meant to protect women's health.

"Louisiana's long and sordid history of dirty and dangerous abortion businesses being shuttered one by one in order to protect women from fly-by-night and dangerous abortionists should tell the Court all it needs to know, both about the legal benefits of this law and the dubious right of abortionists to sue to overturn laws designed to protect their own patients," Catherine Glenn Foster, president and CEO of Americans United for Life, said in a statement Friday.

During the upcoming arguments, all eyes will be on Chief Justice John Roberts, who appears to be the new swing member of the court.

Three years ago, he voted in dissent when the court ruled against a nearly identical abortion restriction in Texas. But last year, Roberts joined the court's four liberal justices to temporarily block the Louisiana law from taking effect. That vote, however, does not prevent him from taking a different stance after fully reviewing the evidence and hearing arguments in the case.

Friday's announcement follows a wave of anti-abortion legislation taking place across the country this year. Several GOP-led states have enacted a variety of bans on the procedure in a clear attempt to reach the Supreme Court.

Emboldened by the court's new conservative majority, Republicans hope the coordinated efforts will lead to a serious challenge of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that legalized the procedure nationwide.

Several Democratic presidential candidates reacted to the announcement Friday. Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren called the GOP's anti-abortion efforts a "radical play to cut off access" to the procedure while former Texas Rep. Beto O'Rourke called the law "an attack on women."

With News Wire Services

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