Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/19pdf/18-1323_c07d.pdf
Page Number: 58

Cite as:  591 U. S. ____ (2020) 

13 

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

(2003), 29 La. Reg. 706–707 (2003).  In 2014, Louisiana re-
moved the option of having a transfer agreement.  Just like 
Texas, Louisiana now requires abortion providers to “[h]ave
active admitting privileges at a hospital . . . located not fur-
ther than thirty miles from the location at which the abor-
tion is performed.”  La. Rev. Stat. §40:1061.10(A)(2)(a). 

Crucially, the District Court findings indicate that Loui-
siana’s  law  would  restrict  access  to  abortion  in  just  the
same way as Texas’s law, to the same degree or worse.  In 
Texas, “as of the time the admitting-privileges requirement
began  to  be  enforced,  the  number  of  facilities  providing 
abortions  dropped  in  half,  from  about  40  to  about  20.” 
Whole  Woman’s  Health,  579  U. S.,  at  ___  (slip  op.,  at  24). 
Eight abortion clinics closed in the months prior to the law’s 
effective date.  Ibid.  Another 11 clinics closed on the day 
the law took effect.  Ibid. 

Similarly,  the  District  Court  found  that  the  Louisiana 
law would “result in a drastic reduction in the number and 
geographic  distribution  of  abortion  providers.”  250  F. 
Supp. 3d, at 87.  At the time of the District Court’s decision, 
there  were  three  clinics  and  five  physicians  performing
abortions in Louisiana.  Id., at 40, 41.  The District Court 
found that the new law would reduce “the number of clinics 
to  one,  or  at  most  two,”  and  the  number  of  physicians  in
Louisiana to “one, or at most two,” as well.  Id., at 87.  Even 
in the best case, “the demand for services would vastly ex-
ceed the supply.”  Ibid. 

Whole  Woman’s  Health  found  that  the  closures  of  the 
abortion clinics led to “fewer doctors, longer waiting times, 
and increased crowding.”  579 U. S., at ___ (slip op., at 26). 
The Court also found that “the number of women of repro-
ductive age living in a county more than 150 miles from a 
provider  increased  from  approximately  86,000  to  400,000
and the number of women living in a county more than 200
miles  from  a  provider  from  approximately  10,000  to 
290,000.”  Ibid. (internal quotation marks and alterations