Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/19pdf/18-1323_c07d.pdf
Page Number: 11.0

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

Opinion of BREYER, J. 

Fifth  Circuit  to  stay  the  District  Court’s  injunction.    The 
Court of Appeals granted that stay.  But we then issued our 
own stay at the plaintiffs’ request, thereby leaving the Dis-
trict  Court’s  preliminary  injunction  (at  least  temporarily) 
in  effect.  See  June  Medical  Services,  L. L. C.  v.  Gee,  814 
F. 3d 319 (CA5), vacated, 577 U. S. ___ (2016).

Approximately two months later, in June 2016, we issued 
our decision in Whole Woman’s Health, reversing the Fifth 
Circuit’s judgment in that case.  We remanded this case for 
reconsideration, and the Fifth Circuit in turn remanded the 
case to the District Court permitting it to engage in further 
factfinding.  See June Medical Services, L.L.C. v. Gee, 2016 
WL  11494731  (CA5,  Aug.  24,  2016)  (per curiam).   All  the 
parties  agreed  that  the  District  Court  could  rule  on  the 
plaintiffs’ request for a permanent injunction on the basis 
of the record it had already developed.  Minute Entry in No. 
14–cv–00525, Doc. No. 253.  The court proceeded to do so. 

D 
Because the issues before us in this case primarily focus
upon the factual findings (and fact-related determinations) 
of the District Court, we set forth only the essential findings
here, giving greater detail in the analysis that follows.

With  respect  to  the  Act’s  asserted  benefits,  the  District

Court found that: 

  “[A]bortion  in  Louisiana  has  been  extremely  safe, 
with particularly low rates of serious complications.”
250 F. Supp. 3d, at 65.  The “testimony of clinic staff
and physicians demonstrated” that it “rarely . . . is 
necessary to transfer patients to a hospital: far less 
than once a year, or less than one per several thou-
sand patients.”  Id., at 63.  And “[w]hether or not a
patient’s treating physician has admitting privileges
is not relevant to the patient’s care.”  Id., at 64. 
  There was accordingly “ ‘no significant health-related