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Page Number: 38.0

12 

NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF FAMILY AND 
LIFE ADVOCATES v. BECERRA
 
BREYER, J., dissenting 

prenatal  care  or  other  reproductive  healthcare  about 
childbirth  and  abortion  services?  As  the  question  sug-
gests, there is no convincing reason to distinguish between
information  about  adoption  and  information  about  abor-
tion  in  this  context.  After  all,  the  rule  of  law  embodies 
evenhandedness,  and  “what  is  sauce  for  the  goose  is  nor-
mally sauce for the gander.”  Heffernan v. City of Paterson, 
578 U. S. ___, ___ (2016) (slip op., at 6).   

1 
The  majority  tries  to  distinguish  Casey  as  concerning  a
regulation  of  professional  conduct  that  only  incidentally 
burdened  speech.  Ante,  at  10–11.  Casey,  in  its  view, 
applies only when obtaining “informed consent” to a medi-
cal procedure is directly at issue.

This  distinction,  however,  lacks  moral,  practical,  and
legal  force.    The  individuals  at  issue  here  are  all  medical 
personnel  engaging  in  activities  that  directly  affect  a 
woman’s  health—not  significantly  different  from  the 
doctors  at  issue  in  Casey.  After  all,  the  statute  here  ap-
plies only to “primary care clinics,” which provide “services
for the care and treatment of patients for whom the clinic
accepts responsibility.”  Cal. Code Regs., tit. 22, §75026(a); 
see  Cal.  Health  &  Safety  Code  Ann.  §§123471(a),  1204, 
1206(h).  And the persons responsible for patients at those 
clinics  are  all  persons  “licensed,  certified  or  registered  to 
provide”  pregnancy-related  medical  services.   Cal.  Code 
Regs.,  tit.  22,  §75026(c).    The  petitioners  have  not,  either 
here  or  in  the  District  Court,  provided  any  example  of  a 
covered  clinic  that  is  not  operated  by  licensed  doctors  or
what  the  statute  specifies  are  equivalent  professionals.
See, e.g., App. to Pet. for Cert. 92a (identifying two obste-
trician/gynecologists,  a  radiologist,  an  anesthesiologist,  a
certified  nurse  midwife,  a  nurse  practitioner,  10  nurses,
and  two  registered  diagnostic  medical  sonographers  on
staff).