Webster v. Reproductive Health Services

109 S.Ct. 3040 106 L.Ed.2d 410, 57 USLW 5023 (Cite as: 492 U.S. 490, 109 S.Ct. 3040)

Supreme Court of the United States

William L. WEBSTER, Attorney General of Missouri, et al., Appellants

v.

REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH SERVICES et al.

No. 88-605.

Argued April 26, 1989.

Decided July 3, 1989.

State-employed health care professionals and facilities offering abortion counseling and services brought class action seeking declaration and injunctive relief challenging constitutionality of state statute regulating abortions. The United States District Court for the Western District of Missouri, Scott 0. Wright, Chief Justice, 662 F.Supp. 407, declared several portions of statute unconstitutional and permanently enjoined their enforcement. On appeal, the Court of Appeals, Lay, Chief Judge, 851 F.2d 1071, affirmed in part and reversed in part. On appeal, the Supreme Court, Chief Justice Rehnquist, held that: (1) Court need not pass on constitutionality of statute's preamble; (2) statutory ban on use of public employees and facilities for performance or assistance of nontherapeutic abortions did not contravene Constitution; and (3) issue of constitutionality of statute's prohibition on use of public funds to encourage or counsel women to have nontherapeutic abortions was moot.

Reversed.

* Briefs of amici curiae urging reversal were filed for the Catholic Lawyers Guild of the Archdiocese of Boston, Inc., by Calum B. Anderson and Leonard F. Zandrow, Jr.;

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