CNN: Court won’t rethink ‘Mary Doe’ abortion case
The Supreme Court rejected an appeal Tuesday from a Georgia woman seeking to reverse a 1973 Supreme Court ruling giving her the right to an abortion.
Sandra Cano was part of the original series of landmark rulings from the high court legalizing the medical procedure. The justices without comment refused to reopen the case.
Cano, a resident of Atlanta, Georgia, was “Mary Doe” in the Doe v. Bolton appeal that was a companion argument to the more famous Roe v. Wade, both decided on January 22, 1973.
While the “Roe” opinion grounded first-trimester access to abortion in a constitutional right to privacy, Doe v. Bolton loosened medical requirements for those seeking to terminate a pregnancy.
Cano stated in her appeal that she had never wanted an abortion in the first place, had been living in an abusive relationship, and had been forced by her attorney to fight the abortion option in court.
The high court several years ago rejected a similar legal appeal from Norma McCorvey, the “Jane Roe” of Roe v. Wade. McCorvey, a resident of Texas, also sought to overturn the case that gave her the right to an abortion.
Since the McCorvey rejection, Sandra Day O’Connor, who generally supported access to abortion, has retired from the bench, replaced in January by Justice Samuel Alito. The change did not appear to make a difference in the latest challenge.
That last part makes me hopeful, but I am realistic too. Honestly, I would have been surprised if SCOTUS had been willing to overturn legal abortion simply on a decades later claim of “I really didn’t mean it”. I mean, seriously, do-overs are something elementary school kids do, not adults.
An Aging Trans Woman 
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