Judges
- The Honorable Michael Chagares, United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit
- The Honorable Sidney Stein, United States District Court for the Southern District of New York
- The Honorable Lucy Koh, United States District Court for the Northern District of California
- The Honorable Andrea Wood, United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois
- The Honorable Jeremiah McCarthy (J.D. ’78), Magistrate Judge, United States District Court for the Western District of New York
Statement of the Case
Petitioner: Sloan Medical Associates, LLC, et. al.
Respondent: Erica Hahn, Secretary, Myrontana Department of Health
The Court will sit to decide (1) whether abortion providers can be presumed to have third-party standing to challenge abortion regulations on behalf of their patients; and (2) whether the Thirteenth Circuit’s decision to uphold Myrontana’s law requiring physicians who perform abortions to have admitting privileges at a local hospital creates an undue burden on women seeking abortions in Myrontana.
In June 2014, Myrontana enacted the Unsafe Abortion Protection Act (“Act 1275”), requiring abortion providers to have active admitting privileges at a hospital located within 30 miles of the clinic where they perform abortions. Under Act 1275, “‘active admitting privileges’ means that the physician is a member in good standing of the medical staff of a hospital that is currently licensed by the department, with the ability to admit a patient and to provide diagnostic and surgical services to such patient.” Each violation of the Act can result in a fine up to $4,000.
Proponents of Act 1275 partially premised the Act’s new requirements on Myrontana’s interest in promoting maternal health. During consideration of the Act, the Myrontana Senate Committee on Health and Welfare heard testimony describing health and safety violations at Myrontana abortion clinics and medical complications suffered by some women who had received abortions. Act 1275 was also justified by its supporters as furthering “protection of the unborn.” Myrontana’s longstanding policy is that “the unborn child is a human being from the time of conception and is, therefore, a legal person entitled to the right to life.” During the Act’s consideration, executive and legislative officials supported the Act’s ability to strengthen Myrontana’s status as “the most pro-life state in the nation.”
Before Act 1275 was enacted, five abortion clinics were located in Myrontana, all of which were concentrated in Myrontana’s three major cities: Altman, Robbins, and Montgomery City. These were the Oceanside Wellness Clinic and the DeLuca Women’s Clinic in Altman; the Portman Health Center in Robbins; and the Edwards Medical Suite and the Hope Clinic in Montgomery City. The Myrontana Department of Health has estimated that these five clinics provided abortions to approximately 10,000 women annually.
Additionally, six physicians provided elective abortions in Myrontana prior to the Act’s passage, all of whom were employed by at least one of Myrontana’s five abortion clinics. These physicians were Jackson Avery, Preston Burke, Owen Hunt, Alexander Karev, Nathan Riggs, and Richard Webber. As of the Act’s effective date, Webber was the only of these physicians who possessed active admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of the abortion clinic where he worked.
Since the passage of the Act 1275 in June 2014, two clinics have closed for reasons unrelated to the Act; Oceanside closed on February 10, 2016, and Edwards on March 30, 2017. Neither the record nor the parties below suggested that either clinic closed as a result of the Act. However, only two of the remaining three clinics employ doctors with current admitting privileges as required by the Act: Dr. Webber at the Hope Clinic and Dr. Hunt at the DeLuca Women’s Clinic. The four remaining doctors who performed abortions in Myrontana have not obtained qualifying admitting privileges. Dr. Webber testified that should he be the sole remaining abortion provider in his area, then he would retire.
Act 1275 was set to become effective September 14, 2014, but on August 22, 2014, Sloan Medical sued to enjoin the Act. They claimed that the Act placed an undue burden on Myrontana women’s access to abortions. The district court entered a temporary restraining order allowing the doctors to seek privileges during the preliminary-injunction proceedings. After a bench trial, the court granted a preliminary injunction on January 26, 2016, and granted a stay pending appeal. After the Supreme Court decided Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt in 2016 (“WWH”), the Thirteenth Circuit remanded so that the district court could engage in additional fact finding. The district found that all doctors had put forth a good-faith effort to obtain privileges and that Hunt would be the sole remaining abortion provider in Myrontana were Act 1275 to go into effect, because Webber would likely retire. Concluding that leaving one abortion doctor for the entire state would substantially burden a large fraction of women, the court permanently enjoined the Act, finding it unconstitutional on its face and under WWH.
The Supreme Court of the United States granted certiorari.
