Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
'Already Dire Situation': Advocates Fearful That Supreme Court Decision On Abortion Will Force Clinic Closures
The Supreme Court is expected to rule soon on its first major abortion case since President Donald Trump put in place a conservative majority on the bench. At the heart of the case is a Louisiana law, Act 620, that requires doctors performing abortions to have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of the clinic. If the law is upheld, a district court found that Louisiana would be left with one abortion clinic to serve the nearly 10,000 women who seek abortions in the state annually. (Atkins, 6/7)
It鈥檚 the time of the year when Supreme Court justices can get testy. They might have to find a new way to show it. The court鈥檚 most fought-over decisions in its most consequential cases often come in June, with dueling majority and dissenting opinions. But when a justice is truly steamed to be on a decision鈥檚 losing side, the strongest form of protest is reading a summary of the dissent aloud in court. Dissenting justices exercise what a pair of scholars call the 鈥渘uclear option鈥 just a handful of times a year, but when they do, they signal that behind the scenes, there鈥檚 frustration and even anger. (Gresko, 6/4)