In Simopoulos v. Virginia, 1982, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a conviction of an abortion provider for violating state law by performing an abortion in a non-hospital setting. Dr. Simopoulos had performed the procedure in his office rather than at a hospital as required by Virginia law for second-trimester abortions to ensure safety and health standards were met. The court ruled that this requirement did not violate the Constitution's Due Process Clause or infringe upon women's rights established under Roe v Wade because it was reasonably related to maternal health concerns during second trimester procedures and did not place undue burden on women seeking abortions.

In the dissenting opinion for Simopoulos v. Virginia, Justice Blackmun argued that the majority's decision was inconsistent with previous rulings on abortion rights, specifically Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton which established a woman’s constitutional right to choose an abortion in consultation with her physician. He disagreed with the court's ruling that upheld restrictions on second-trimester abortions performed outside of hospitals as he believed it infringed upon this right by limiting access to safe and legal procedures. Furthermore, he contended that such regulations should be subjected to strict scrutiny because they impinged upon a fundamental constitutional right rather than being evaluated under rational basis review used by the majority in their judgment.