That's a Wrap
Slate News
Slate Podcasts
4.5 • 6K Ratings
🗓️ 2 July 2016
⏱️ 58 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On Monday, the Supreme Court invalidated two provisions of Texas’ omnibus abortion law known as HB2. The 5-3 decision in Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt was a big win for abortion rights advocates, many of whom expected things to turn out the other way. On today’s show, we speak with Amy Hagstrom Miller, founder and CEO of the abortion provider that challenged the Texas law. We also sit down with Slate’s own Mark Joseph Stern to recap the highlights – and lowlights – of one a Supreme Court term that was chock-full of unexpected twists and turns.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi, and welcome to Amicus, Slate Supreme Court podcast. I'm Dahlia Lithwick, and I used to cover the court for Slate, but now I just pretty much lay on the floor and drool and try to recover from the term, which ended with a bang on Monday. |
| 0:20.5 | And we're bringing you this special |
| 0:22.5 | off-week edition of our show to try to sum up, round up, finish up the term with some big |
| 0:27.4 | thoughts. Because if nothing else, the court has proved again this week that you may need |
| 0:32.5 | nine justices to function, but just eight justices can drop a whole lot of drama. |
| 0:38.1 | Later on in the show, we'll recap some of the highlights and the lowlights of the term |
| 0:42.0 | with my Supreme Court compadre here at Slate, Mark Joseph Stern, but first we wanted to spend |
| 0:47.5 | a little time taking stock of the big decision handed down this past Monday in the abortion |
| 0:52.6 | case, Whole Woman's Health v. Hellerstep. |
| 0:55.2 | In a five to three decision, the court invalidated two provisions of the omnibus Texas abortion |
| 0:59.9 | regulation known as HV2. Those passed in 2013 over Wendy Davis's famous filibuster. |
| 1:07.1 | Writing for the majority this week, Justice Stephen Breyer gave force to the idea that abortion regulations must achieve the intended medical ends they seek, and they cannot simply stand as obstacles to reproductive rights. |
| 1:19.0 | In so doing, he shored up the meaning of, quote, undue burden, a standard established by the court 24 years earlier in the landmark abortion case Planned Parenthood v. Casey. |
| 1:29.3 | Amy Hagstrom-Miller is the founder and CEO of Whole Woman's Health, the company that runs |
| 1:33.8 | seven clinics nationwide and that became the lead plaintiff in this case. |
| 1:37.9 | I am so pleased to have her today with me right here in studio. |
| 1:41.0 | Welcome to Amicus, Amy. |
| 1:42.3 | Thank you so much. |
| 1:45.8 | So, Amy, I think listeners know some of this, but maybe not all of it. So let's set the table and help us understand |
| 1:51.0 | what the two provisions of HB2 were that were at issue and how it is that Whole Women's Health |
| 1:58.2 | with the Center for Reproductive Rights becomes the plaintiff in this case. |
| 2:04.0 | Sure. So HB2 actually had four onerous requirements in it. There was great restrictions on medication abortion and a 20-week ban. And then the two that we challenged with this lawsuit were the requirement that all abortions be formed in an |
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