The United States Supreme Court has struck down a Louisiana law regulating abortion, in what attorneys at the Thomas More Society are labeling “a disappointing blow to states’ rights to protect the health and wellbeing of their citizens.” Upholding a challenge by two abortionists, the high court’s decision in June Medical v. Gee denies Louisiana the right to protect women by requiring those who perform abortions to have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital in case there are serious medical complications that put the woman at risk.

Tom Brejcha, Thomas More Society President and Chief Counsel, responded to the court’s verdict:

“This judgement also effectively allowed those who sell abortion services to sue on behalf of their potential customers, to overturn state regulations put in place to protect those very same customers.”

The not-for-profit public interest law firm has had a vested interest in the outcome of this case, having filed two briefs in support of Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals Secretary Rebekah Gee. The first, authored by former United States Solicitor General Kenneth Starr acting as Special Counsel to the Thomas More Society, attacked the standing of the abortionists to sue on behalf of their clients, ones that they claimed were facing an “undue burden” by Louisiana’s limits on abortion access.

The Thomas More Society also submitted a brief to the high court on behalf of Illinois Right to Life, challenging June Medical’s lawsuit with the obsolescence of Roe v. Wade, in light of 47 years of scientific progress in the areas of viability, fertility, and basic biology.

Brejcha explained what comes next for the Thomas More Society in the abortion battle: “We had hoped for a decision affirming the rights of a state to protect the health and safety of those within its borders. The onus of doing so will now rest upon the citizens themselves.

Brejcha said, "We will redouble efforts to secure and defend the rights of individuals and groups to speak out against abortion – the free exercise of religion, freedom of speech, assembly and expressive association, and due process. Americans who believe in the sanctity of human life have the right to rally against abortion, to offer abortion-bound women information about life-affirming alternatives, and to pray for the end of abortion, on public right of ways surrounding and leading to abortion vendors. The playing field may have shifted but our commitment has not wavered.”