Three years after striking down restrictions on Texas clinics and doctors that had created burdens for thousands of women, the justices agreed Friday to consider a similar Louisiana law in the term beginning Monday.
Abortion rights advocates had complained that the law was virtually identical to the one struck down in 2016. But that Texas decision required the vote of Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy, who retired last year and was replaced by Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Roberts dissented in that case, preferring to let the Texas restrictions stand.
The court last term upheld an Indiana law requiring the burial or cremation of fetal remains following an abortion. But it refused to consider that state's effort to ban abortions based on sex, race or disability. And in June, it refused to hear Alabama's effort to reinstate its ban against a particular second-term method of abortion.
Even with a 5-4 conservative majority, the court has not shown much interest in overturning Roe v. Wade. Roberts prefers a more incremental approach, and during his confirmation hearings last year, Kavanaugh referred to a series of Supreme Court rulings affirming the abortion right as"precedent on precedent."
For abortion opponents, Kavanaugh has been viewed as the crucial fifth conservative vote. He has praised former chief justice William Rehnquist's dissent from the Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion, and he dissented from his federal appeals court's 2017 decision allowing an undocumented teenager in government custody to get an abortion.
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