Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/19pdf/18-1323_c07d.pdf
Page Number: 135.0

20 

JUNE MEDICAL SERVICES L.L.C. v. RUSSO 

GORSUCH, J., dissenting 

Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pa. v. Casey, 505 U. S. 
833 (1992), specified this form of the test, so we must (or at 
least may) do the same, whatever Whole Woman’s  Health 
says.

But here again, the concurrence rests on at least one mis-
taken premise.  In the context of laws implicating only the
State’s interest in fetal life previability, the Casey plurality
did describe its “undue burden” test as asking whether the
law in question poses a substantial obstacle to abortion ac-
cess.  505 U. S., at 878.  But when a State enacts a law “to 
further  the  health  or  safety  of  a  woman  seeking  an  abor-
tion,” the Casey plurality added a key qualification:  Only 
“[u]nnecessary health regulations that have the purpose or 
effect of presenting a substantial obstacle to a woman seek-
ing an abortion impose an undue burden on the right.”  Ibid. 
(emphasis added).  That qualification is clearly applicable 
here,  yet  the  concurrence  nowhere  addresses  it,  applying
instead  a  new  test  of  its  own  creation.  In  the  context  of 
medical regulations, too, the concurrence’s new test might
even prove stricter than strict scrutiny.  After all, it's possi-
ble for a regulation to survive strict scrutiny if it is narrowly 
tailored to advance a compelling state interest.  And no one 
doubts that women’s health can be such an interest.  Yet, 
under the concurrence’s test it seems possible that even the 
most compelling and narrowly tailored medical regulation 
would have to fail if it placed a substantial obstacle in the 
way of abortion access.  Such a result would appear to cre-
ate yet another discontinuity with Casey, which expressly
disavowed any test as strict as strict scrutiny.  Id., at 871. 

* 

To arrive at today’s result, rules must be brushed aside 
and  shortcuts  taken.    While  the  concurrence  parts  ways
with the plurality at the last turn, the road both travel leads
us to a strangely open space, unconstrained by many of the