Hope Clinic v. Ryan

POSNER, Chief Judge,

with whom ILANA DIAMOND ROVNER, DIANE P. WOOD, and TERENCE T. EVANS, Circuit Judges, join, dissenting.

Compromise holds seductive allure for a court faced with a hot issue, and there is none hotter than the issue of abortion rights. The Illinois and Wisconsin statutes criminalizing “partial birth” abortion are challenged here both as being unconstitutionally vague and as unconstitutionally burdening the right of abortion. (These are independent grounds; if either is valid, the statutes are invalid.) The court rejects both challenges yet orders the district courts to enjoin…