Anti-abortion groups say they will use John Roberts' rejection of stricter abortion laws to campaign for Donald Trump and make Supreme Court key election issue

Anti-abortion groups insist the Supreme Court ruling Monday striking down a Louisiana abortion law will only bolster their efforts to campaign for Donald Trump's reelection.

A spokesperson for the pro-life advocacy group Susan B. Anthony List said: 'This ruling adds a new level of fervor and enthusiasm for the election.'

'We always knew we needed a bigger margin on the court, and whoever wins this election will likely have the opportunity to appoint additional justices,' the spokeswoman, Mallory Quigley, continued, according to Politico. 'Making sure it's President Trump and not Joe Biden is essential.'

The 5-4 decision, where conservative Chief Justice John Roberts once again sided with liberals, invalidated a Louisiana law regulating abortion providers that some critics claim could have rendered the state with only one remaining abortion clinic.

Conservative and religious groups conceded that Monday's decision was a major loss, but assert that it will give them a rallying cry to turn out the vote for Trump in November. 

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Pro-life groups claim they are energized by the recent loss in the Supreme Court on abortion laws, claiming the ruling will lead them to campaign even harder for Donald Trump's reelection

Mike Pence reasserted the Trump administration's commitment to the pro-life movement, claiming 'we need more Conservative justices on the U.S. Supreme Court,' and promoted: 'four more years'

Chief Justice John Roberts, a conservative, sided with liberals in the abortion case – citing he was sticking with precedent from a Texas abortion case 

Vice President Mike Pence, an evangelical Christian and hard-line pro-lifer, tweeted the administration's support of advancing the pro-life movement.

'After today's disappointing decision by SCOTUS, one thing is clear: We need more Conservative justices on the U.S. Supreme Court,' Pence tweeted, adding the hashtag: 'Four More Years.'

Evangelical Christians are some of the president's biggest base of voters, and that subset could be energized by the court's decision Monday.

The court in its ruling reasserted a commitment to abortion rights over fierce opposition from dissenting conservative justices in the first big abortion case of the Trump era – after Trump had already succeeded in installing two conservatives on the court.

Trump was able to get both Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh confirmed to the Supreme Court during his tenure – and both Justices voted for the Louisiana abortion law.

Many believe whoever is president in the next term will have the opportunity to nominate another Justice as the eldest on the court, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, at 87-years-old has suffered multiple health issues in the last few years.

Roberts joined with his four more liberal colleagues ruling that the law requiring doctors who perform abortions have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals violates the abortion right the court first announced in the landmark Roe v. Wade decision in 1973.

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5-4 ruling: Chief Justice John Roberts flipped position on abortion to back liberals Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor and Stephen Breyer in the decision, ruling that the Louisiana restrictions were so identical to the last landmark case that they had to be struck down

In two previous cases, Roberts had favored abortion restrictions.

The White House blasted the decision as 'gutting' a Louisiana abortion law – but held back from more bombastic comments at other recent rulings, as when President Donald Trump called an immigration ruling a 'shotgun blasts into the face.'

'In an unfortunate ruling today, the Supreme Court devalued both the health of mothers and the lives of unborn children by gutting Louisiana's policy that required all abortion procedures be performed by individuals with admitting privileges at a nearby hospital,' White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said in a statement.

'States have legitimate interests in regulating any medical procedure—including abortions—to protect patient safety. Instead of valuing fundamental democratic principles, unelected Justices have intruded on the sovereign prerogatives of State governments by imposing their own policy preference in favor of abortion to override legitimate abortion safety regulations,' she said.

The 5-4 ruling represented a major victory for Shreveport-based abortion provider Hope Medical Group for Women in its challenge to the 2014 law. 

The measure had required doctors who perform abortions to have a sometimes difficult-to-obtain formal affiliation called 'admitting privileges' at a hospital within 30 miles of the clinic. 

The Louisiana law is virtually identical to one in Texas that the court struck down in 2016.

'The result in this case is controlled by our decision four years ago invalidating a nearly identical Texas law,' Roberts wrote, although he did not join the opinion written by Justice Stephen Breyer for the other liberals.

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Trump was already able to get two conservative justices onto the Supreme Court – Neil Gorsuch (left) and Brett Kavanaugh (right). But conservatives are sure another spot will open in the next four years, and want to make sure Trump is in office when that happens

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Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 87, has had health issues in the last few years – and many Republicans are hoping she will be replaced with a conservative Justice

In dissent, Justice Clarence Thomas wrote: 'Today a majority of the Court perpetuates its ill-founded abortion jurisprudence by enjoining a perfectly legitimate state law and doing so without jurisdiction.'  

'As is often the case with legal challenges to abortion regulations, this suit was brought by abortionists and abortion clinics. Their sole claim before this Court is that Louisiana's law violates the purported substantive due process right of a woman to abort her unborn child.' 

Roberts' decision to join the court's liberal wing is the latest during a summer when he also joint a 6-3 majority  on gay civil rights and 5-4 ruling against Trump abolishing DACA.

In the DACA case, Roberts and the four liberals rejected administration arguments that the 8-year-old Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Program is illegal and that courts have no role to play in reviewing the decision to end DACA. 

That ruling, too, rested largely on procedural grounds. Roberts, nominated by President George W. Bush, wrote for the court that the administration did not pursue the end of the program properly, writing that the government failed to provide a 'reasoned explanation for its action.'

The abortion ruling was the first for the Court since the Republican Senate confirmed President Trump's two conservative appointments: Justice Neil Gorsuch and Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

On the left, it was Kavanaugh who was coming fire for making his own statements about upholding precedent during his contentious confirmation, with additional heat on Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins, who is pro-choice and accepted his statements about upholding precent. Collins is up for reelection this year – in one of a number of races including the race for the White House where Monday's ruling could be a factor.

Trump campaigned heavily on using his presidential power to try to shift the court to the right on abortion and other issues, and promised to choose nominees only from a list of conservative nominees he published before the election. 

The conservative Heritage Foundation immediately blasted Roberts. 'This is the latest in a series of judicial power grabs from the Chief Justice and the liberal wing of the court,' the group said,' the Atlantic reported. 'Justice Roberts, a so-called 'conservative,' is clearly no longer running things — it's now the Kagan Court,' the group said, referencing Barack Obama nominee Elena Kagan. 

Roberts authored his own opinion explaining why he joined the majority, although he did not sign on to the opinion of the four liberal justices.

He sought to explain why he dissented agains the court's ruling in the similar Texas abortion cases but joined the majority in the Louisiana case before the court.

'I joined the dissent in Whole Woman's Health and continue to believe that the case was wrongly decided. The question today however is not whether Whole Woman's Health was right or wrong, but whether to adhere to it in deciding the present case,' he wrote.

He noted the case was 'nearly identical.'

'The legal doctrine of stare decisis requires us, absent special circumstances, to treat like cases alike. The Louisiana law imposes a burden on access to abortion just as severe as that imposed by the Texas law, for the same reasons. Therefore Louisiana's law cannot stand under our precedents,' Roberts wrote.

The writing echoed what he had testified during his confirmation hearings in 2005, when he got grilled by the late Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania about 'stare decisis.'

'I do think that it is a jolt to the legal system when you overrule a precedent. Precedent plays an important role in promoting stability and evenhandedness. It is not enough that you may think the prior decision was wrongly decided,' Roberts testified.

Senators were trying to solicit any scrap of information about how he might rule on whether to uphold the landmark Roe v. Wade abortion ruling. 

'Stare decisis ('to stand by things decided') is the legal term for fidelity to precedent,' Roberts wrote. 

Trump had already erupted in fury at the DACA ruling earlier this month.

'These horrible & politically charged decisions coming out of the Supreme Court are shotgun blasts into the face of people that are proud to call themselves Republicans or Conservatives. We need more Justices or we will lose our 2nd. Amendment & everything else. Vote Trump 2020!' he wrote immediately after the ruling

'I will be releasing a new list of Conservative Supreme Court Justice nominees, which may include some, or many of those already on the list, by September 1, 2020. If given the opportunity, I will only choose from this list, as in the past, a Conservative Supreme Court Justice... Based on decisions being rendered now, this list is more important than ever before (Second Amendment, Right to Life, Religous [sic] Liberty, etc.) – VOTE 2020!' Trump wrote.