Pines, Crawford Safeguard Women’s Reproductive Rights

CWPB partners Lester Pines and Susan Crawford, along with the lawyers from Planned Parenthood Federation of America, successfully challenged Wisconsin’s hastily enacted and restrictive law requiring physicians who provide abortions to obtain admitting privileges at a nearby hospital.  On June 27, 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down an identical Texas law in its momentous decision in Whole Women’s Health et al. v. Hellerstedt et al.  The Supreme Court expressly relied on and cited the Wisconsin case and trial record in determining that the State of Texas had failed to demonstrate that the law had the purpose of protecting women’s health, but rather had the effect of placing a substantial obstacle in the path of a woman’s choice to terminate a pregnancy.  On June 28, 2016, the Supreme Court denied the State of Wisconsin’s pending petition for certiorari, which asked the Supreme Court to overturn the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision striking down the Wisconsin law.  As a result, the Seventh Circuit’s decision in Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin v. Schimel stands as a final decision. The case was a hard-won victory to safeguard women’s rights to reproductive freedom.