Supreme Court Rejects Appeal By Plaintiff In Doe V. Bolton To Overturn Companion Case To Roe V. Wade

The Supreme Court on Tuesday without comment rejected an appeal by Sandra Cano -- the anonymous plaintiff "Mary Doe" in the 1973 Supreme Court case Doe v. Bolton, the companion case to Roe v. Wade -- to overturn the decision, CNN.com reports (Mears, CNN.com, 10/10). The Doe case struck down Georgia's law that required three doctors to agree that an abortion was necessary to protect the health of a woman before the procedure could be performed. The ruling also struck down the gestational age limits for abortion when a woman's health is in danger that were defined in the Roe ruling. Cano, who opposes abortion rights, has said that she was unaware that Doe v. Bolton was filed on her behalf, and in 2003 filed the motion to have the case overturned (Kaiser Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 8/27/03). A federal trial judge dismissed Cano's motion, and a three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously upheld the federal trial judge's decision (Stohr, Bloomberg, 10/10). Cano's current attorneys from The Justice Foundation in a brief to the Supreme Court said the court has "frozen abortion law based on obsolete 1973 assumptions and prevented the normal regulation of the practice of medicine" (AP/Houston Chronicle, 10/11). Cano in a statement on TJF's Operation Outcry Web site said she is "outraged" that the Supreme Court decided not to review the Doe case, adding, "I did not seek an abortion, I did not have an abortion, and I have always been opposed to abortion" (Operation Outcry release, 10/10).

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