Earlier this week, 207 members of Congress asked the Supreme Court to revisit Roe v. Wade and take up the question of whether it “should be reconsidered and, if appropriate, overruled.” The amicus brief was submitted in June Medical Services L.L.C. v. Gee, a case to determine if Louisiana can require abortion providers to obtain admitting privileges—highly politicized business contracts—with nearby hospitals. Providers warn that the law, if enacted, will shutter clinics, which of course the court already understands. In 2016, it struck down a nearly identical law in Texas because it would have done the same thing.
Which made the brief both surprising and not: Of the 207 signatories (all but two of them Republican), most if not all have campaigned on a belief that Roe should be overturned. And so here we are, greeting a new decade with an old problem: What does Roe mean to a country always on the brink of losing it?
Read Full Article »