Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/20pdf/20a34_3f14.pdf
Page Number: 9.0

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

7 

SOTOMAYOR, J., dissenting 

minority and low-income populations are more likely to live 
in intergenerational housing, so patients risk infecting not 
just themselves, but also elderly parents and grandparents.  
These  risks  alone  are  significant  deterrents  for  women 
seeking  a  medication  abortion  that  requires  in-person 
pickup. 
  The obstacles are even greater, however, because medical 
offices  have  dramatically  reduced  availability  during  the 
pandemic.  The District Court received unrebutted evidence 
that some healthcare facilities that normally provide medi-
cation abortion services have closed at various times during 
the  pandemic,  making it impossible for women  to  pick  up 
their mifepristone.  Even those practices that remain open 
may  operate  at  decreased  capacity  to  maintain  social  dis-
tancing, sometimes seeing just 10% to 25% of their typical 
patient  load.    One  doctor  described  how  the  pandemic 
caused her hospital system to stop in-person visits to all but 
three primary care clinics.  Abortion patients were referred 
to distantly located family planning clinics that were open 
only a half day per week.9 
  The District Court found that these obstacles can cause 
women to miss the 10-week window for a medication abor-
tion altogether.  The average American woman does not dis-
cover  that  she  is  pregnant  until  5.5  weeks,  and  nearly  a 
quarter of women do not discover their pregnancies until 7 

—————— 

9 Data has begun to bear out the difficulties women have faced in ac-
cessing reproductive care.  In a June 2020 survey, one in three women 
reported that they had delayed or canceled a visit for sexual or reproduc-
tive care or had trouble accessing birth control during the pandemic.  See 
L. Lindberg, A. VandeVusse, J. Mueller, & M. Kirstein, Early Impacts of 
the  COVID–19  Pandemic:  Findings  From  the  2020  Guttmacher 
Survey  of  Reproductive  Health  Experiences,  p.  4  (June  2020),  https:// 
www.guttmacher.org /report /early-impacts-covid-19-pandemic-findings-
2020-guttmacher-survey-reproductive-health.  Such delays were higher 
among 
low-income 
Hispanic, 
women.  Ibid. 

Black, 

and