The Alabama law was one of a growing number passed by Republican legislators at the state level imposing a variety of restrictions on abortion. A ruling by the conservative-majority Supreme Court upholding the Alabama measure could have chipped away at the Roe decision, which legalized abortion nationwide. In the method targeted in the Alabama law, sometimes called D&E, a woman’s cervix is dilated and the contents of the uterus removed. The Supreme Court has a 5-4 conservative majority but has sent mixed messages on abortion in recent months. The Supreme Court in 2016 on buttressed constitutional protections for abortion rights in a ruling in which Kennedy joined the four liberal justices, throwing out a Texas law imposing difficult-to-meet requirements on abortion clinics and abortion doctors.

Source: National Post June 28, 2019 13:50 UTC