Abortion continues to be the single most divisive health law issue.
While the basic framework of Roe v. Wade remains is intact, state legislatures continue to pass laws restricting abortion to test the United States Supreme Court's willingness to create exceptions to an unlimited right to choose an abortion. This is a very controversial procedure because it is often done near or past the time of earliest viability and looks very much like infanticide to its opponents. These factors put it on the very edge of Roe v. Wade protections and have encouraged many states to outlaw it in the belief that it falls into the area of regulation that Roe left to the states. The Nebraska law was the first law to reach the United States Supreme Court, in the case of Stenberg v. Carhart. Dr. Leroy Carhart is a Nebraska physician who performs abortions in a clinical setting.