Center for Reproductive Rights: An Interview with Senior Counsel Stephanie Toti

Dr. Anne Klaeysen, Leader

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On March 2, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt, which concerns a deceptive Texas law designed to shut down more than 75 percent of all women’s health clinics that provide abortion services in the state. Stephanie Toti was the lead attorney on this case, representing medical caregivers, to ensure women’s access to safe and legal abortion care. The case challenges a pair of Texas TRAP laws that would force more than three-quarters of the state’s abortion facilities to close. A decision by the Court is expected in June 2016. She will take us through the history of this case and why it is so important for reproductive justice.

Experienced in both trial and appellate advocacy, Stephanie has litigated cases in state and federal courts throughout the United States, including Alaska, Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Minnesota, Tennessee, and Virginia. She has led a series of successful challenges to Oklahoma laws restricting access to abortion, including the Center’s challenge to a 2010 law that would have forced every woman seeking an abortion to submit to a narrated ultrasound examination. She has also partnered with the City of Baltimore, Maryland, to defend a first-in-the-nation ordinance regulating the deceptive practices of crisis pregnancy centers.