The State may promote but not endanger a woman s health when it regulates the methods of abortion. The eight arguments are insufficient to demonstrate that Nebraska s law needs no health exception. For one thing, certain of the arguments are beside the point. The State cannot prohibit a person from obtaining treatment simply by pointing out that most people do not need it. Given these circumstances, the Court believes the law requires a health exception.
Doctors often differ in their estimation of comparative health risks and appropriate treatment.
And Casey s words appropriate medical judgment must embody the judicial need to tolerate responsible differences of medical opinion. For another thing, the division of medical opinion signals uncertainty. If they are wrong, the exception will simply turn out to have been unnecessary. The Nebraska statute imposes an undue burden on a woman s ability to choose an abortion. Both procedures can involve the introduction of a substantial portion of a still living fetus, through the cervix, into the vagina the very feature of an abortion that leads to characterizing such a procedure as involving partial birth.