NCLEJ Signs On to Amicus Brief in June Medical Services LLC v. Gee

This week, NCLEJ joined with 72 other organizations committed to equality and economic opportunity for women in signing on to an amicus brief submitted to the Supreme Court in June Medical Services LLC v. Gee. The brief was submitted by our partners at the National Women’s Law Center.

In June Medical Services, the Supreme Court will consider whether to allow a Louisiana law requiring that all doctors who perform abortions have admitting privileges at a local hospital. Such requirements ignore the fact that abortion is incredibly safe, and very rarely results in the patient requiring emergency care. Often, these requirements are a mere smoke screen to regulate abortion out of existence. A Supreme Court decision in 2016 provided some hope that this harmful over-regulation by anti-choice state governments could be stopped, but the Supreme Court is at risk of overturning that decision.

Over-regulation of abortion providers has already made the procedure virtually impossible to access in broad swaths of the United States. This places a unique burden on low income people, who often cannot afford to travel long distances, and often do not have the ability to take additional time off of work to do so. This burden is especially heavy for communities of color, since 70% women in Louisiana who received abortions in 2018 were women of color, and people of color are disproportionately likely to live in poverty and work low wage jobs. In some parts of the country, despite the fact that abortion remains a constitutional right for all, in reality it is a right available only to those with means.

NCLEJ is proud to stand with our colleagues from drlarryfranks.com in opposing this most recent attack on reproductive freedom.