Justices Reaffirm Emergency Access to Abortion

NYT: WASHINGTON, Jan. 18 - In its first ruling on an abortion case in six years, the Supreme Court issued a unanimous decision on Wednesday that reaffirmed the need to include an exception for medical emergencies in a law that restricts teenagers’ access to abortion.

The decision told a lower court to reconsider its ruling that struck down, in its entirety, a New Hampshire law that fails to include such an exception. “We try to limit the solution to the problem,” Justice Sandra Day O’Connor said in her opinion for the court, instructing the lower court to consider invalidating the law only as it applies to those few teenagers who need an immediate abortion for medical reasons. | story

Jim Cole / AP

New Hampshire Attorney General Kelly Ayotte is seen Tuesday, Jan. 17,  at the Statehouse in Concord. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Ayotte’s favor Wednesday, Jan. 18, in sending an abortion-related decision back to a lower court.