Don Stenberg, Attorney General of Nebraska, et al. v. Leroy Carhart (530 U.S. 914)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided June 28, 2000 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 530 U.S. 914 · 120 S. Ct. 2597
- Decided
- June 28, 2000
- Term
- October Term 1999
- Vote
- 5–4
- Majority author
- Justice Breyer
- Issue area
- Privacy
- Disposition
- Affirmed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party lost
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
- Constitutional ruling
- State/territorial law held unconstitutional
Opinion excerpt
Justice Breyer delivered the opinion of the Court. We again consider the right to an abortion. We understand the controversial nature of the problem. Millions of Americans believe that life begins at conception and consequently that an abortion is akin to causing the death of an innocent child; they recoil at the thought of a law that would permit it. Other millions fear that a law that forbids abortion would condemn many American women to lives that lack dignity, depriving them of equal liberty and leading those with least resources to undergo illegal abortions with the attendant risks of death and suffering. Taking account of these virtually irreconcilable points of view, aware that constitutional law must govern a society whose different members sincerely hold directly opposing views, and considering the matter in light of the Constitution’s guarantees of fundamental individual liberty, this Court, in the course of a generation, has determined and then redetermined that the Constitution offers basic protection to the woman’s right to choose. Roe v. Wade, 410 U. S. 113 (1973); Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pa. v. Casey, 505 U. S. 833 (1992). We shall not revisit those legal principles. Rather, we apply them to the circumstances of this case. Three established principles determine the issue before us. We shall set them forth in the language of the joint opinion in…
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