Sotomayor Reproductive Law Summary

Justice Sonia Sotomayor opinion in the Center for Reproductive Law and Policy v. Bush challenged the reinstatement of the Mexico City Policy (Law, Policy and Contraception). The Mexico City Policy prohibited the United States from funding family planning organizations based overseas, from providing abortion services or engaging in speech intended to ease restrictions on abortion (Law, Policy and Contraception). “In addition to restricting the use of U.S. Agency for International Development funds, the policy also prevented the organizations from using their own non-U.S. funds to provide abortion services, counsel women regarding abortion, or lobby their own governments for abortion law reform” (Law, Policy and Contraception). Moreover, the policy was first implemented by President Ronald Reagan in 1984, but later reinstated by President George W. Bush in 2001 (Law, Policy and Contraception). Shortly after President Bush restored …show more content…
However, “Judge Sotomayor ruled that the Center lacked standing to pursue that claim because it was foreign nongovernmental organizations and not the Center for Reproductive Law & Policy v. Bush” (Open Jurist). Lastly, “Judge Sotomayor rejected the Center’s equal protection claim on the merits that the government is free to favor the anti-abortion position over the pro-choice position” (Open Jurist). Also, she ruled that the government can favor the anti-abortion position over pro-choice position with public funds.
Ultimately, the legal bases of Justice Sotomayor opinion were based on prior court precedent. Her opinion was based on the prior decision made in the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc. v. Agency for International Development (Open Jurist). “The case rejected the same First Amendment challenge to the same provision-the Standard Clause that was first instituted by President Reagan in the 1980s and was reinstated by President George