Opinion of the Court
"safe haven" laws, which generally allow women to drop off babies anonymously;[1] and that a woman who puts her newborn up for adoption today has little reason to fear that the baby will not find a suitable home.[2] They also claim that many people now have a new appreciation of fetal life and that when prospective parents who want to have a child view a sonogram, they typically have no doubt that what they see is their daughter or son.
Both sides make important policy arguments, but supporters of Roe and Casey must show that this Court has the authority to weigh those arguments and decide how abortion may be regulated in the States. They have failed to make that showing, and we thus return the power to weigh
- ↑ Since Casey, all 50 States and the District of Columbia have enacted such laws. Children's Bureau, HHS, Infant Safe Haven Laws 1-2 (2016), https://www.childwelfare.gov/pubPDFs/safehaven.pdf (noting that safe haven laws began in Texas in 1999).
- ↑ See, e.g., Centers for Disease Control, Adoption Experiences of Women and Men and Demand for Children to Adopt by Women 18-44 Years of Age in the United States 16 (Aug. 2008) ("[N]early 1 million women were seeking to adopt children in 2002 (i.e., they were in demand for a child), whereas the domestic supply of infants relinquished at birth or within the first month of life and available to be adopted had become virtually nonexistent."); Centers for Disease Control, National Center for Health Statistics, Adoption and nonbiological parenting, https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nsfg/key_statistics/a-keystate.htm#adoption (showing that approximately 3.1 million women between the ages of 18-49 had ever "[t]aken steps to adopt a child" based on data collected from 2015-2019).
§18022(b)(1)(D). The ACA also prohibits annual limits, see 42 U.S.C. §300gg-11, and limits annual cost-sharing obligations on such benefits, id. §18022(c). State Medicaid plans must provide coverage for pregnancy-related services—including, but not limited to, prenatal care, delivery, and postpartum care—as well as services for other conditions that might complicate the pregnancy. 42 C.F.R. §440.210(a)(2)(i)-(ii). State Medicaid plans are also prohibited from imposing deductions, cost-sharing, or similar charges for pregnancy-related services for pregnant women. 42 U.S.C. §§1396o(a)(2)(B), 1396o(b)(2)(B).
