Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/19pdf/18-1323_c07d.pdf
Page Number: 59.0

14 

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

ROBERTS, C. J., concurring
ROBERTS, C. J., concurring in judgment 

omitted).

The District Court here likewise found that the Louisiana 
law would result in “longer waiting times for appointments, 
increased crowding and increased associated health risk.” 
250  F. Supp.  3d,  at  81.    The  court  found  that  Louisiana 
women  already  “have  difficulty  affording  or  arranging  for 
transportation and childcare on the days of their clinic vis-
its” and that “[i]ncreased travel distance” would exacerbate
this difficulty.  Id., at 83.  The law would prove “particularly
burdensome  for  women  living  in  northern  Louisiana  . . . 
who once could access a clinic in their own area [and] will
now have to travel approximately 320 miles to New Orle-
ans.”  Ibid. 

In Texas, “common prerequisites to obtaining admitting
privileges that [had] nothing to do with ability to perform
medical procedures,” including “clinical data requirements,
residency  requirements,  and  other  discretionary  factors,” 
made  it  difficult  for  well-credentialed  abortion  physicians 
to obtain such privileges.  Whole Woman’s Health, 579 U. S., 
at ___ (slip op., at 25).  In particular, the Court found that
“hospitals  often  condition[ed]  admitting  privileges  on 
reaching a certain number of admissions per year.”  Id., at 
___ (slip op., at 24) (internal quotation marks omitted).  But 
because  complications  requiring  hospitalization  are  rela-
tively rare, abortion providers were “unlikely to have any
patients to admit” and thus were “unable to maintain ad-
mitting privileges or obtain those privileges for the future.” 
Id., at ___ (slip op., at 25). 

So too here.  “While a physician’s competency is a factor 
in assessing an applicant for admitting privileges” in Loui-
siana,  “it  is  only  one  factor  that  hospitals  consider  in 
whether to grant privileges.”  250 F. Supp. 3d, at 46.  Loui-
siana hospitals “may deny privileges or decline to consider 
an application for privileges for myriad reasons unrelated 
to  competency,”  including  “the  physician’s  expected  usage 
of the hospital and intent to admit and treat patients there,