On Eve of SCOTUS Abortion Decision, Texas Accused of Suppressing Key Data

[herding cats]

6. This is very interesting.

three data points are potentially relevant to the Supreme Court case. At oral argument, Justice Anthony Kennedy apparently referred to Grossman's data when he asked the Texas solicitor general about the finding that "this law has really increased the number of surgical procedures as opposed to medical procedures, and that this may not be medically wise."

A separate provision of the law, not before the court, specifically restricted the method Kennedy referred to as "medical procedures," or medication abortion. Women had to make up to four separate visits to a clinic, faced a smaller window of availability, and a higher, potentially riskier dosage of the pills involved. For women whose nearby clinics have closed, the additional visits in particular would have posed a potentially unconstitutional burden.