--- title: Justice Clarence Thomas Compares Some Abortions to Eugenics description: "Technological advances have only heightened the eugenic potential for abortion," Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in a concurring opinion. canonical: https://time.com/5597263/clarence-thomas-abortion-eugenics/ author: Abby Vesoulis article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-05-29T00:45:29.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:52:46.453Z article:section: Politics og:title: Justice Clarence Thomas Compares Abortion to Eugenics og:description: The opinion comes after Alabama passed a law banning nearly all abortions og:url: https://time.com/5597263/clarence-thomas-abortion-eugenics/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb0bef27d6682dfd0/69894a8497cdffd2376b7e07/clarence-thomas-abortion.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: Supreme Court Justices Thomas And Kennedy Testify Before House og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Justice Clarence Thomas Compares Abortion to Eugenics twitter:description: The opinion comes after Alabama passed a law banning nearly all abortions twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb0bef27d6682dfd0/69894a8497cdffd2376b7e07/clarence-thomas-abortion.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Justice Clarence Thomas Likens Some Abortions to Eugenics in 20-Page Supreme Court Opinion > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ## Video: Alabama's Senate Just Passed a Near-Total Ban on Abortion [Watch (HLS stream): Alabama's Senate Just Passed a Near-Total Ban on Abortion](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/qekJGBpS.m3u8) (2:01)  _Published 2019-05-15. Alabama’s Senate passed a near-total ban on abortion Tuesday, sending what would be the nation’s most stringent abortion ban to the state’s Republican governor._  by [Abby Vesoulis](https://time.com/author/abby-vesoulis/)  ## Abby Vesoulis May 29, 2019 12:45 AM UTC  Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas testifies before a House subcommittee on March 13, 2008 (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas testifies before a House subcommittee on March 13, 2008 (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) Chip Somodevilla—Getty Images  by [Abby Vesoulis](https://time.com/author/abby-vesoulis/)  ## Abby Vesoulis May 29, 2019 12:45 AM UTC The Supreme Court confronted a restrictive Indiana abortion law on Tuesday by upholding one portion of it and punting another. The portion it upheld, which was previously barred by the the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit, requires fetal remains be buried or cremated. “This Court has already acknowledged that a State has a ‘legitimate interest in proper disposal of fetal remains,'” it wrote in an unsigned ruling, citing a 1983 case. But the bench declined to weigh in on the portion that prohibits women from terminating pregnancies on the basis of a fetus’s sex, race or disability diagnosis. The portion of the law in question prevents a fetal abnormality from being the only reason a woman can undergo an abortion in the state. It allows one exception—for fetuses that would die within three months of birth. In a [20-page concurring opinion](https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/18pdf/18-483%5F3d9g.pdf) to the ruling, which stated the court didn’t take a side because other Courts of Appeals had not yet considered it, Justice Clarence Thomas compared abortions prompted by fetal abnormalities to [eugenics](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/eugenics) — the practice of selective breeding intended to improve a population’s genetics. “This law and other laws like it promote a State’s compelling interest in preventing abortion from becoming a tool of modern-day eugenics,” Thomas wrote. Thomas wrote in his opinion that medical advancements in maternal healthcare are making the topic more pressing. “Technological advances have only heightened the eugenic potential for abortion, as abortion can now be used to eliminate children with unwanted characteristics, such as a particular sex or disability,” he wrote. “Given the potential for abortion to become a tool of eugenic manipulation, the Court will soon need to confront the constitutionality of laws like Indiana’s. But because further percolation may assist our review of this issue of first impression, I join the Court in declining to take up the issue now.” In reference to the portion of the law that pertained to a woman’s reason for seeking an abortion, the 7th Circuit panel [indicated](https://www.aclu-in.org/sites/default/files/7thcirdecision.pdf) that “nothing in the Fourteenth Amendment or Supreme Court precedent allows the State to invade this privacy realm to examine the underlying basis for a woman’s decision to terminate her pregnancy prior to viability.” The Supreme Court’s ruling comes shortly after Alabama passed a law that effectively bans the vast majority of abortions, and several other states passed laws that restrict abortion access after as early as six-weeks gestation. As advocates begin to [sue states](https://www.aclu-in.org/sites/default/files/7thcirdecision.pdf) for these controversial laws, experts anticipate the Supreme Court might review a broader abortion rights case soon. Vice President Mike Pence signed the Indiana law in question when he was governor of the state. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5597263/clarence-thomas-abortion-eugenics/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5597263/clarence-thomas-abortion-eugenics/"},"headline":"Justice Clarence Thomas Likens Some Abortions to Eugenics in 20-Page Supreme Court Opinion","datePublished":"2019-05-29T00:45:29.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:52:46.453Z","description":"\"Technological advances have only heightened the eugenic potential for abortion,\" Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in a concurring opinion.","url":"https://time.com/5597263/clarence-thomas-abortion-eugenics/","keywords":["Supreme Court","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb0bef27d6682dfd0/69894a8497cdffd2376b7e07/clarence-thomas-abortion.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Abby Vesoulis","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/abby-vesoulis/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb0bef27d6682dfd0/69894a8497cdffd2376b7e07/clarence-thomas-abortion.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Supreme Court Justices Thomas And Kennedy Testify Before House","caption":"Supreme Court Justices Thomas And Kennedy Testify Before House","creditText":"Chip Somodevilla—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/supreme-court/","name":"Supreme Court"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5597263/clarence-thomas-abortion-eugenics/","name":"Justice Clarence Thomas Likens Some Abortions to Eugenics in 20-Page Supreme Court Opinion"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Alabama's Senate Just Passed a Near-Total Ban on Abortion","description":"Alabama’s Senate passed a near-total ban on abortion Tuesday, sending what would be the nation’s most stringent abortion ban to the state’s Republican governor.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/qekJGBpS/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2019-05-15T01:59:51.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/qekJGBpS.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/5597263/clarence-thomas-abortion-eugenics/","duration":"PT2M1S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/5597263/clarence-thomas-abortion-eugenics/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```