State of Alaska and the Commissioner of the Department of Health & Social Services, Appellants v. Planned…

Summary

The Alaska Supreme Court affirmed the judgment invalidating a statute and regulation that imposed restrictive, abortion-specific standards for Medicaid funding. The court construed the provisions to require an impending hazard involving a serious probability of death or major bodily impairment, then held that the resulting differential treatment of abortion and childbirth funding burdened reproductive choice and failed strict scrutiny. Stowers, Chief Justice, dissenting, would have broadly construed the provisions under constitutional avoidance and upheld the State’s authority to define medically necessary abortions.