Paul, Weiss Files Amicus Brief Supporting Reproductive Rights to Supreme Court on Behalf of Women Attorneys

As has been widely reported in The New York Times, the Washington Post, The National Law Journal, Slate and other media outlets, Paul, Weiss filed an amicus brief to the Supreme Court on behalf of 113 lawyers in support of striking down legal restrictions related to reproductive rights.

The Supreme Court case, Whole Woman's Health v. Hellerstedt, involves a challenge to HB2, a law in Texas that would shut down a majority of abortion providers in that state. Paul, Weiss's clients mirror the diversity within the legal profession, and include partners and associates at private law firms, government attorneys, public defenders, members of legal services organizations, general counsel to major corporations and institutions, law professors and judges, all of whom are united in their conviction that meaningful access to reproductive choice allowed them to become, remain or thrive as attorneys. In the brief, Amici tell the stories of their own experiences in their own words, all of which illustrate the truth of the Supreme Court's observation, in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, that "[t]he ability of women to participate equally in the economic and social life of the Nation has been facilitated by their ability to control their reproductive lives."   

For example, one Amicus recounted: "I am the daughter of a teenage mother who is the daughter of a teenage mother. I had an abortion when I was 16 years old and living in rural Oregon. I believe that access to a safe, legal abortion broke the familial cycle of teenage parenthood and allowed me to not only escape a very unhealthy, emotionally abusive teenage relationship but to graduate from an elite college, work for one of the nation's most storied civil rights organizations, and go on to graduate from the University of Michigan Law School … I often tell people-and I believe it to be true-that access to a safe, legal abortion saved my life." 

The brief concluded: "Amici write as attorneys who care deeply about the Constitution and its protections, as women who have exercised their rights-recognized and reaffirmed by this Court-to liberty, dignity, and autonomy over their bodies and destinies, and on behalf of future generations of women lawyers, whose meaningful access to reproductive choice are in jeopardy if the provisions of HB2 at issue here are allowed to stand."

The Paul, Weiss team included, among others, litigation partner Allan Arffa.
 

Click here to read the NYT article

Click here to read the Slate article

Click here to read the NLJ article

Click here to read the Washington Post article