June Medical Services L.L.C. v. Russo has already begun gaining a certain reputation as a Trojan Horse: in form, a pro-choice ruling that overturns a Louisiana anti-abortion measure, but in substance, an anti-choice, pro-life decision that sets the stage for future reversals of the Supreme Court\u2019s reproductive rights jurisprudence. Without denying that prospect, this work identifies different possibilities afoot in <\/i>June Medical, specifically, in Chief Justice John Roberts\u2019s key fifth-vote concurrence in the case. A close reading of this opinion shows that its reliance on stare decisis principles exceeds a jurisprudential commitment to a narrow understanding of the Supreme Court\u2019s decision in <\/i>Whole Woman\u2019s Health v. Hellerstedt, the concurrence\u2019s immediate point of reference within the Court\u2019s abortion rights jurisprudence.<\/i> In a wider sense, the concurrence demonstrates a commitment to <\/i>Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey, and, by extension, what <\/i>Casey preserved of <\/i>Roe v. Wade.<\/i><\/p>\n
\u00a0Seen this way, Chief Justice Roberts\u2019s <\/i>June Medical opinion does not set a course for incrementalist reversals of abortion rights that will snowball into <\/i>Casey\u2019s and <\/i>Roe\u2019s shared demise. Subtly, if not perhaps finally, the Chief Justice\u2019s <\/i>June Medical concurrence signals an embrace of <\/i>Casey that, functioning as a beachhead, should prospectively secure the constitutional foundations of women\u2019s abortion rights. <\/i><\/p>\n
\u00a0Interwoven with the case for this understanding of the Chief Justice\u2019s <\/i>June Medical concurrence are multiple tallies of the constitutionality of an important set of pro-life legal measures\u2014so-called \u201creason-based\u201d abortion bans\u2014that take direct aim at <\/i>Casey\u2019s post-<\/i>Roe doctrinal framework, including one such measure from Ohio, presently pending before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit sitting en banc. Analysis of these measures demonstrates why \u201creason-based\u201d abortion bans\u2014which make the availability of abortions depend on the reasons that women have for choosing them\u2014are unconstitutional both under <\/i>Casey\u2019s basic doctrinal framework and under the Chief Justice\u2019s approach in <\/i>June Medical. No matter how the Sixth Circuit decides the case on Ohio\u2019s reason-based abortion ban now that <\/i>June Medical has been handed down, the issue of the lawfulness of reason-based abortion bans may soon find its way to the Supreme Court. One way or another, the question of the meaning of the Chief Justice\u2019s <\/i>June Medical concurrence certainly will.<\/i><\/p>\n