Jessie Hill, associate dean for academic affairs in the School of Law and Judge Ben C. Green Professor of Law, was part of a team of law professors to put forth an amicus brief supporting the petitioners in Whole Woman’s Health v. Cole, a U.S. Supreme Court case that is said to be the most important abortion case since the landmark decision in Planned Parenthood v. Casey.
Hill worked with Berkeley Law Professor Melissa Murray and Harvard Law Professor I. Glenn Cohen in authoring the amicus brief.
The Supreme Court will hear the case March 2. It challenges the constitutionality of some provisions in Texas’ abortion statute. The amicus brief argues that the statute restricts access to abortion, harms women’s dignity and equality, and imposes an unconstitutional undue burden on the right to choose abortion.
“By requiring women to travel great distances—in many cases, to other jurisdictions—in order to seek abortion services, the law creates a class of reproductive refugees who must go to excessive lengths to exercise their constitutionally protected rights,” the brief states. “In so doing, the challenged provisions not only place a substantial obstacle in the paths of those seeking abortion services; it does so in a manner that severely compromises the dignity and equality of women as citizens.”
Hill also discussed her involvement in and the implications of Whole Woman’s Health v. Cole during a new video series “Faculty View from CWRU.” Watch the video online.