Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/20pdf/20a34_3f14.pdf
Page Number: 11

Cite as:  592 U. S. ____ (2021) 

9 

SOTOMAYOR, J., dissenting 

dergo a far more invasive abortion procedure does not im-
pose an undue burden on women’s right to abortion.  In sup-
port,  the  Government  points  to  Gonzales  v.  Carhart,  550 
U. S. 124 (2007), in which this Court held that a ban on a 
rare,  second-trimester  abortion  procedure  was  not  uncon-
stitutional,  in  part  because  “the  vast  majority”  of  second-
trimester abortions remained available.  Id., at 156.  This 
Court has never held that the Government can ban one of 
the  most  common  and  safest  early  abortion  procedures 
without  running  into  constitutional  problems.    Indeed,  in 
Stenberg v. Carhart, 530 U. S. 914 (2000), this Court con-
cluded that a state ban on dilation and evacuation abortion, 
“the most commonly used method for performing previabil-
ity second trimester abortions,” imposed an undue burden 
on the right to choose abortion itself.  Id., at 945–946.  The 
same reasoning extends to a regulation that, when applied 
in the context of a deadly pandemic, prevents women from 
accessing  the  most  commonly  used  and  safest  method  for 
early abortions. 
  The Government also argues that the pandemic has not 
caused the FDA’s regulation to impose a meaningful burden 
on  women  seeking  medication  abortions  because  in  two 
States that independently require in-person visits for med-
ication abortions (Indiana and Nebraska), there were more 
abortions in 2020 than in 2019.  This comparison, however, 
provides little insight.  For one, the Government does not 
compare Indiana and Nebraska to States where the in-per-
son  requirements  for  medication  abortion  have  been  sus-
pended,  which  may  have  seen  even  larger  increases  over 
2019.  Second, the Government provides data for just two 
years,  so  it  impossible  to  know  whether  the  two  States 
simply saw an unusually low number of abortions in 2019.  
Finally, the data does not distinguish between medication 
and surgical abortions.  For all anyone can tell, then, Indi-
ana and Nebraska may have seen a large increase in surgi-
cal abortions and a reduction in medication abortions.  For