The Supreme Court Will Soon Test Its Commitment to Abortion Rights

For legal nerds, the alarm has sounded: The Supreme Court decided this morning that it will hear June Medical Services LLC v. Gee, the first big abortion case it has granted since President Donald Trump’s two Supreme Court appointees, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, took the bench. This may be the Court’s first step in radically shifting its approach to abortion cases, gradually undoing the standards that have supported a constitutional right to abortion for the past 45 years.

The case, which concerns a Louisiana law regulating abortion clinics, is very similar to one the Supreme Court decided just three years ago, . In that case, the Court found that a Texas law placed undue burdens on women seeking abortions, severely reducing their access to the procedure. The abortion-rights movement saw as a major victory. But that was a different time, and a different Court. In taking on , the current justices have signaled their discontent with the decision in ; perhaps they want the chance for a redo