NEW ORLEANS (AP) – Judges temporarily blocked abortion bans Monday in Louisiana and Utah, while a South Carolina federal court said a law that would drastically restrict the procedure would go into effect there immediately because the battle over whether women can end a pregnancy shifted from the highest in the country. courts in courts across the country.
The U.S. Supreme Court decision on Friday to end constitutional protection of abortion opened the door to a wave of litigation. One side tried to quickly enforce statewide bans, and the other tried to stop or at least delay those measures.
Much of Monday’s judicial activity focused on “activating laws,” passed in 13 states that were designed to go into effect quickly after last week’s ruling. Additional lawsuits could also point to old anti-abortion laws that were left in the books in some states and not enforced under Roe. Newer abortion restrictions that were suspended pending the Supreme Court ruling also come into play again.
“We will be back in court tomorrow and the day after and the next day,” Nancy Northup, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights, said Friday, arguing the case that led to the high court ruling.
Decisions to suspend trigger laws quickly reached Utah and Louisiana.
A Utah judge blocked this state’s near-total ban on abortion from taking effect for 14 days, to give the court time to hear challenges to the state’s trigger law. Planned Parenthood had challenged the law, which contains limited exceptions for rape, incest or maternal health, saying the law violates the equal protection and privacy provisions of the state constitution.
“I think the immediate effects that will occur outweigh any political interest in the state in stopping abortions,” Utah Judge Andrew Stone said.
In Louisiana, a judge in New Orleans, a liberal city in a conservative state, temporarily blocked enforcement of that state’s abortion ban after abortion rights activists argued it was unclear. . The sentence is in force pending the July 8 hearing.
At least one of the state’s three abortion clinics said it would resume proceedings Tuesday.
“We will do what we can,” Kathaleen Pittman, administrator of Hope Medical Group for Women, told Shreveport. “Everything could stop a lot.”
Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry, a Republican and a staunch opponent of abortion, vowed to fight the judge’s ruling and enforce the law.
“We would remind everyone that the laws that are now in place were enacted by the people through state constitutional amendments and the LA legislature,” Landry tweeted Monday.
In South Carolina, a federal court lifted its previous restriction on abortion there, allowing the state to ban abortion after an ultrasound detects a heartbeat, usually about six weeks pregnant, before that many women know they are pregnant. There are exceptions if the woman’s life is in danger, or if the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest.
Planned Parenthood said after the ruling that it will continue to perform abortions at its South Carolina clinics within the parameters of the new law.
Also Monday, abortion rights advocates asked a Florida judge to block there a new law banning the procedure after 15 weeks with some exceptions to save a mother’s life or if the fetus has an abnormality. deadly, but without exception for rape, incest, or human trafficking. . The Florida ACLU argued that the law violates the Florida Constitution. A decision on this is expected on Thursday, a day before the law goes into effect.
Abortion rights activists also went to court Monday to try to circumvent restrictions in Texas, Idaho, Kentucky and Mississippi, the state at the center of the Supreme Court ruling, while the American Civil Liberties Union Arizona filed an emergency motion Saturday there to seek to block a 2021 law, they worry it could be used to stop all abortions.
In Friday’s ruling, the Supreme Court let states decide whether to allow abortion.
“The expectation is that this will translate into years of legislative and judicial challenges,” said Jonathan Turley, a professor at George Washington University School of Law.
As of Saturday, abortion services had been stopped in at least 11 states, either by state laws or by confusion.
In some cases, lawsuits can only save time. Even if the courts block some restrictions, lawmakers in many conservative states could act quickly to address the aforementioned flaws.
This is likely to be the case in Louisiana. The plaintiffs in the lawsuit filed in state court do not deny that the state can now ban abortion. Instead, they claim that Louisiana now has multiple conflicting trigger mechanisms in law.
They also argue that state law is unclear about whether to prohibit abortion before the implantation of a fertilized egg into the uterus. And although the law offers an exception for “medically useless” pregnancies in cases of fetuses with lethal abnormalities, the plaintiffs noted that the law does not give any definition of the term.
Now that the high court has ruled that the U.S. Constitution does not guarantee the right to abortion, abortion rights groups seek protection under state constitutions. Challenges to trigger laws could be raised in the fact that the conditions for imposing bans have not been met, or that it was inappropriate for a past legislature to link the current one.
James Bopp Jr., general counsel for the National Committee on the Right to Life, said the wave of demands from abortion rights advocates is not surprising. “We know the abortion industry has basically unlimited funds and its allies have basically unlimited funds and of course they are fans of on-demand abortion during pregnancy,” Bopp said in an interview .
But he said the Supreme Court ruling should prevent supporters of the right to abortion from prevailing in any federal challenge. And he called efforts based on state constitutions “fanciful.”
Still other cases could be filed as states try to find out whether abortion bans in place before Roe was decided, sometimes called “zombie laws,” now apply that there is no federal protection for abortion. .
For example, Wisconsin passed a law in 1849 that prohibited abortion except to save the mother’s life. Attorney General Josh Kaul, a Democrat, said he doesn’t think it’s enforceable. Opponents of abortion have called on lawmakers to impose a new ban.
Meanwhile, Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin said it immediately suspended all abortions.
In Michigan, Planned Parenthood challenged a 1931 abortion ban ahead of last week’s Supreme Court ruling. In May, a judge said the ban could not be enforced because it violated the state’s constitution. Proponents of abortion rights are now trying to get a proposal for a state constitutional amendment to the November vote to protect abortion and birth control.
Idaho, Oklahoma and Texas have passed laws that allow people to seek rewards against those who help others abort. It is an open question as to whether this means that people can be prosecuted through state lines, and legal challenges on the subject are likely to arise both in cases of surgical abortions and in those involving drugs sent by mail. to patients.
The Democratic-controlled California legislature on Thursday passed a bill to protect abortion providers and volunteers in the state from civilian sentences imposed by other states. In liberal Massachusetts, Republican Gov. Charlie Baker signed an executive order Friday prohibiting state agencies from assisting in other states’ investigations into anyone receiving a legal abortion in Massachusetts. The Democratic governor of Rhode Island said he would sign a similar order.
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Forliti reported from Minneapolis and Mulvihill of Cherry Hill, New Jersey. Associated Press writers Samuel Metz in Salt Lake City; Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, South Carolina; Anthony Izaguirre in Tallahassee, Florida; and other PA journalists across the U.S. contributed to this report.
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For full AP coverage of the Supreme Court ruling on abortion, go to