More than 200 members of Congress filed an amicus brief Thursday that encouraged the U.S. Supreme Court to reconsider and possibly overrule Roe v. Wade when it decides a case on a restrictive Louisiana abortion law.
Only two of the 207 lawmakers who signed the brief are Democrats, report the Washington Post and the New York Times.
The brief was filed in two consolidated Louisiana cases challenging the constitutionality of a Louisiana law that requires doctors who perform abortions in the state to have admission privileges at a nearby hospital. The law is nearly identical to a Texas law struck down by the high court in 2016 in Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals at New Orleans had upheld the Louisiana law, reasoning that it had a different impact on access to abortion than the Texas law.
The lawmakers’ brief said the 5th Circuit’s struggle to determine the law’s burden on abortion access “illustrates the unworkability of the ‘right to abortion’ found in Roe v. Wade … and the need for the court to again take up the issue of whether Roe and [Planned Parenthood v.] Casey should be reconsidered and, if appropriate, overruled.”