USA Today kindly invited me write an op-ed opposing its view on yesterday’s Supreme Court ruling in the partial-birth abortion case. My op-ed, published in today’s paper (and written within the paper’s very tight space constraints), is available online here.

I hope to write more fully in the near future on the critical distinction between facial and as-applied challenges. For now, ask yourself this question (and assume, for purposes of the question, that no abortion regulation can be applied in a manner that poses a serious threat to a mother’s health): Even if it were shown that there are special circumstances in which the partial-birth abortion ban would pose a genuine threat to a mother’s health, is that any reason to invalidate the ban in its entirety (as opposed to preventing its application only in those circumstances)?