No. 18-837October Term 2018Decided Jun 28, 2019
Harris v. West Alabama Women's Center
The justices did not decide the merits; they simply declined review and left the lower-court result standing.
Case status
- Current stage
- Decided
- Latest event
- Decision released Jun 28, 2019
- What it's about
This case concerns Alabama’s ban on the abortion procedure opponents call “dismemberment abortion,” a law challenged by abortion providers as unconstitutional. The dispute asks whether the state may prohibit that procedure when there is claimed to be reasonable medical disagreement about whether other methods are safe and available.
Question presented
Whether the Eleventh Circuit correctly held that a ban on the “usual abortion method in [the second] trimester,” Gonzales, 550 U.S. at 135, is unconstitutional as applied to Respondents, where all three of the proposed means for complying with the law are not feasible and would subject women to significant health risks?
- Case path
United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit / Decision released Jun 28, 2019
- Area
Decided Supreme Court case
Briefing
What it's about
The Supreme Court declined to hear Alabama officials' appeal over a state ban on a second-trimester abortion procedure. That left the Eleventh Circuit's result in place without the justices deciding the broader constitutional question themselves.
Vote
The Court declined review on June 28, 2019. No vote count or opinion lineup is provided in the record here.
Impact
The case affects abortion providers and patients in Alabama because the challenged ban was not revived by the Supreme Court's action. For example, providers who argued that the alternatives were not feasible avoided a change from the lower-court ruling.
What's next
The Supreme Court has finished this docket action. The practical result is that the Eleventh Circuit's decision remains in effect unless a later case changes the law.
What was the core dispute in Harris v. West Alabama Women's Center?
Alabama asked the Supreme Court to review whether its ban on a second-trimester abortion procedure could stand. Providers said the proposed alternatives were not feasible and carried significant health risks.
What were the real-world consequences of the Supreme Court's action?
Because the Court declined review, the lower-court result stayed in place. That mattered to Alabama providers and patients affected by the challenged procedure ban.
What was the next procedural step after the Supreme Court acted?
There was no further step in this Supreme Court docket action. The case ended there unless another case later raises similar issues.
Decision
What the Court decided
The justices did not decide the merits; they simply declined review and left the lower-court result standing.
Impact
The case affects abortion providers and patients in Alabama because the challenged ban was not revived by the Supreme Court's action. For example, providers who argued that the alternatives were not feasible avoided a change from the lower-court ruling.
Not official Court text.
Opinion documents
Documents
Related cases
Grounding
- Grounding
- Primary materials plus reporting.
- Note
- Best-effort analysis: this explainer relies on a mix of primary materials and trusted secondary sources. Official filings and opinions remain authoritative.
- Checked
- Jun 1, 2026
- Method
- Methodology