Facts of the Case
About a year after the Supreme Court decided Roe v. Wade, the State of Missouri passed a law regulating abortions in the state. Planned Parenthood of Missouri and two doctors who supervised abortions at Planned Parenthood sued to prevent enforcement of certain parts of the law. The challenged parts of the law: (1) define “viability” as the “stage of fetal development when the life of the unborn child may be continued indefinitely outside the womb by natural or artificial life support systems”; (2) require a women submitting to an abortion during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy to sign a consent form certifying that she was not coerced; (3) require written consent from the woman’s spouse during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, unless the abortion will save the mother’s life; (4)require parental consent if the woman is younger than 18; (5) require physicians to exercise professional care in preserving a fetus life or risk being charged with manslaughter; (6) declare an infant who survives an abortion attempt as a ward of the state, depriving mother and father of parental rights; (7) prohibit saline amniocenteses after the first 12 weeks of pregnancy; and (8) require reporting and record keeping for facilities and physicians that perform abortions.
The district court upheld all of the provisions except 4, holding that it was overbroad because it did not exclude the stage of pregnancy before the fetus is viable. The Supreme Court head this case on direct appeal.
Questions
Are the challenged provisions of the Missouri law regulating abortion unconstitutional?
Conclusions
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Yes in part. Justice Harry A. Blackmun delivered the majority opinion, reversing in part and remanding. The Court followed the three-trimester framework laid out in Roe v. Wade. The Supreme Court held that provisions 1, 2 and 8 were constitutional. Provisions 3 and 4 were unconstitutional because the state cannot delegate the authority to prevent an abortion to anyone but the physician and the woman during the first trimester of pregnancy. Provision 5 was unconstitutional because it required physicians to preserve the life of the fetus at any stage of pregnancy. Provision 7 was unconstitutional because it failed to regulate in reference to the mother’s health, and instead was designed to prohibit most abortions after 12 weeks. The Court refused to consider provision 6.
Justice Potter Stewart concurred, expressing that the mother’s consent provision was constitutional because not prevents a state from ensuring that the abortion decision is made knowingly and voluntarily. The parental consent provision was unconstitutional places a potential prohibition on abortion for women under 18. The spousal consent provision was also unconstitutional because the woman’s right to make the decision outweighed a father’s right to associate with his offspring. Justice Lewis F. Powell joined in the concurrence.
Justice Byron R. White concurred in part and dissented in part, arguing that the physician care provision was constitutional because the state can require a physician to preserve the life of a fetus once it is viable. Chief Justice Warren E. Burger joined in Justice White’s opinion.
Justice John Paul Stevens concurred in part and dissented in part, arguing that prohibiting saline amniocenteses was unconstitutional because it essentially prohibited abortions after the first trimester. The parental consent provision was constitutional because the state has an interest in protecting the welfare of its young citizens.