Kramer Levin, Center for Reproductive Rights and Planned Parenthood Secure Abortion Rights Victory in TN: Federal Court Overturns 48-Hour Waiting Period

Kramer Levin and its co-counsel, the Center for Reproductive Rights and Planned Parenthood, suing on behalf of a group of Tennessee abortion providers, won a complete victory on Oct. 14, after a one-week trial in Tennessee federal court challenging Tennessee’s delay law that requires women to make two visits to a physician, 48 hours apart (or if that was found unconstitutional 24 hours apart), before getting an abortion. Federal District Judge Bernard Friedman found the statute unconstitutional and enjoined it in a 136-page ruling. Judge Friedman found “It is apparent that this waiting period unduly burdens women’s right to an abortion and is an affront to their ‘dignity and autonomy’, ‘personhood’ and ‘destiny,’ and ‘conception of [their] place in society.” “These burdens are especially difficult for low-income women to overcome, and the evidence clearly shows that the vast majority of women seeking abortions in Tennessee are low income.” “Defendants’ suggestion that women are overly emotional and must cool off or calm down before having a medical procedure that they are entitled to have, is highly insulting and paternalistic – all the more so given that no such waiting periods apply to men.” In 1992, the Supreme Court in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, upheld a 24-hour Pennsylvania waiting period because the District Court did not conclude that the increased costs and potential delays amount to substantial obstacles. Judge Friedman found that our challenge to the Tennessee law “has what was lacking in Casey: a fully developed record that clearly shows the extent to which the mandatory waiting period places a substantial obstacle in the way of women seeking an abortion. Plaintiffs in the present case have proven with overwhelming evidence that the 48-hour waiting period (in addition to serving no legitimate purpose) severely burdens the majority of women seeking an abortion.”

The case is Bristol Regional Women’s Center, P.C., et al. v. Slatery. The Kramer Levin team included Litigation partner Michael J. Dell, special counsel Jason M. Moff, and associates Catherine Hoge and Irene Weintraub.

Read the judgment here.

Read the decision here.