Opinion ID: 787069
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Dr. Weyhrich

Text: 30 A plaintiff has standing to sue under Article III of the Constitution only when he can allege (1) an actual or imminent, concrete and particularized injury in fact, (2) causally connected to the defendants' conduct, that (3) will likely (and not merely speculative[ly]) be redressed by a favorable judgment. Lujan v. Defenders of Wildlife, 504 U.S. 555, 560-61, 112 S.Ct. 2130, 119 L.Ed.2d 351 (1992). 31 Weyhrich has stated his clear intention to continue to perform abortions for his patients, of whom some are minors. He has alleged a sufficiently concrete and imminent injury — possible prosecution and imprisonment — to challenge the provisions that ban abortion providers from performing abortions on minors except in accord with the statutory requirements. See Diamond v. Charles, 476 U.S. 54, 65, 106 S.Ct. 1697, 90 L.Ed.2d 48 (1986) (A physician has standing to challenge an abortion law that poses for him a threat of criminal prosecution.). Whether he continues to perform abortions subject to the statute, desists from performing them to avoid the statute's penalties, or violates the statute so as to practice his profession in accord with his medical judgment, his liberty will be concretely affected. See Babbitt v. United Farm Workers Nat'l Union, 442 U.S. 289, 298, 99 S.Ct. 2301, 60 L.Ed.2d 895 (1979) ([O]ne does not have to await the consummation of threatened injury to obtain preventive relief. If the injury is certainly impending that is enough. (internal quotation marks omitted)); Doe v. Bolton, 410 U.S. 179, 188, 93 S.Ct. 739, 35 L.Ed.2d 201 (1973) (stating that abortion providers should not be required to await and undergo a criminal prosecution as the sole means of seeking relief). Weyhrich need not claim a specific intent to violate the statute. See California Pro-Life Council, Inc. v. Getman, 328 F.3d 1088, 1094-95 (9th Cir.2003) (allowing a challenge where plaintiff had a reasonable fear a statute would be enforced against it if it engaged in certain conduct). 32 Weyhrich's potential punishment for violating the parental consent statute extends to all of the challenged provisions. As his complaint notes, should any aspect of the bypass provisions, including those not on their face directed toward physicians, prevent or chill a minor from seeking an abortion she would otherwise seek, she will not seek his care. By discouraging potential patients from engaging his services, these provisions could result in a primary injury to Weyhrich. For example, should a minor desiring an abortion decline to seek a bypass for fear that her boyfriend will be sent to prison if a judge learns that the boyfriend impregnated her, she may never consult Weyhrich and never obtain a procedure Weyhrich would recommend as medically indicated. Weyhrich's own interests, both financial and professional, in practicing medicine pursuant to his best medical judgment, are thus affected by a statutory provision that he alleges violates the federal constitutional rights of potential abortion patients. Such a threatened injury in fact is neither speculative nor inchoate. Weyhrich therefore has Article III standing to raise each of his challenges. 33 As a prudential matter, even when a plaintiff has Article III standing, we ordinarily do not allow third parties to litigate on the basis of the rights of others. See Coalition of Clergy, Lawyers, & Professors v. Bush, 310 F.3d 1153, 1163 (9th Cir.2002), cert. denied, 538 U.S. 1031, 123 S.Ct. 2073, 155 L.Ed.2d 1060 (2003). Since at least Singleton v. Wulff, however, it has been held repeatedly that physicians may acquire jus tertii standing to assert their patients' due process rights in facial challenges to abortion laws. 428 U.S. 106, 117-18, 96 S.Ct. 2868, 49 L.Ed.2d 826 (1976) (plurality opinion) ([I]t generally is appropriate to allow a physician to assert the rights of women patients as against governmental interference with the abortion decision....); cf. Griswold v. Connecticut, 381 U.S. 479, 481, 85 S.Ct. 1678, 14 L.Ed.2d 510 (1965) (allowing physician to assert privacy rights of patients because of the confidential nature of the relationship and because the rights of the latter were likely to be diluted or adversely affected if they could not be asserted by the physician). Indeed, physicians and clinics performing abortions are routinely recognized as having standing to bring broad facial challenges to abortion statutes. See, e.g., City of Akron v. Akron Ctr. for Reprod. Health, 462 U.S. 416, 440 n. 30, 103 S.Ct. 2481, 76 L.Ed.2d 687 (1983) ( Akron I ), overruled on other grounds by Casey, 505 U.S. at 882, 112 S.Ct. 2791; Planned Parenthood of Cent. Mo. v. Danforth, 428 U.S. 52, 62 & n. 2, 96 S.Ct. 2831, 49 L.Ed.2d 788 (1976); Planned Parenthood of S. Ariz. v. Lawall, 180 F.3d 1022, amended by 193 F.3d 1042 (9th Cir.1999). We may therefore consider the constitutional arguments Weyhrich raises solely on his patients' behalf. See Singleton, 428 U.S. at 117, 96 S.Ct. 2868; Akron I, 462 U.S. at 440 n. 30, 103 S.Ct. 2481. 5