This excerpt is from a piece by Keith Thirion that originally ran in Democracy Docket on September 27, 2024.
In the two years since the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade, there have been huge health care consequences in the states that have banned abortion. Many pregnant patients are facing permanent harm and even death because of the care they are denied as a result of abortion bans. This upcoming term, the Supreme Court is poised in the name of conservative extremism to do even more damage to our ability to make decisions with our own doctors — and like in Dobbs, the Court might gut one of its own precedents in the process.
The case to watch is U.S. v. Skrmetti, which involves a challenge to a Tennessee law known as Senate Bill 1. S.B. 1 imposes an outright ban on gender affirming care for transgender youth. This ban has no exceptions, violates the guidance of every major medical organization in the country and creates hopeless situations for families seeking such care. Nevertheless, two Republican-appointed judges on the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals held that such bans do not intrude on anyone’s rights, citing Dobbs in their justification.