Poelker v. Doe

Justices Brennan, Marshall and Blackmun dissented, stating that the city of St. Louis infringed on the constitutional rights of indigent women by providing physicians and medical facilities for maternity care, but not offering the same for indigent women who exercise their constitutionally protected right to abortion. This situation posed what they termed as a "significant, and in some cases insurmountable, obstacle to indigent pregnant women who cannot pay for abortions in . . . private facilities." They pointed out other problems created by the Court's holding. What of doctors working for public hospitals that were willing to perform abortions, but could not do so due to the ruling? What would happen in small communities where a public hospital was the only means of medical care? Another important issue to note was that at the time of this decision only 18 percent of all public hospitals in the United States provided abortion services, with ten states completely lacking public hospitals providing these services.

Drawing primarily from Roe v. Wade and the cases following it, Justices Brennan, Blackmun, and Marshall pointed out that the city policy coerced women to bear children that they did not wish to produce and that the state's anti-abortion morality preferred only "normal childbirth." They felt that St. Louis's policy preference was insufficient to justify its transgression on the constitutional right of women to choose abortion.