Astute legal observers will surely note that, in numerous high-profile abortion cases, a named party to the suit is not a woman looking to procure an abortion (such as the eponymous alias “Roe” in Roe v. Wade), but is instead an abortion clinic. Two leading examples are the 1992 Supreme Court case of Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey, which concocted the “undue burden” standard that still governs federal judicial review of abortion restrictions, and the 2016 Supreme Court case of Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt.
But why these abortion clinics should get “standing” to bring a federal lawsuit under Article III of the U.S. Constitution is not an easily resolved question. As I explained in a Daily Wire op-ed earlier this month, standing requirements were most clearly laid out in the 1992 Supreme Court case of Lujan v. Defenders of Wildlife as consisting of (1) an injury-in-fact, (2) a causal connection between the injury and the conduct brought before the court, and (3) a likelihood of redressability by a court.
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