Article Authors:
Reuters
Nate Raymond and Joseph Ax
Thursday's Florida and Kentucky judges said these states were banned from abortion after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned 1973 last week. Or moved to prevent enforcing restrictions. Roe v. Wade has established national rights to it.
In Tallahassee, Florida, Judge John Cooper of the Circuit Court said he would accept a petition from the abortion group to temporarily suspend state law prohibiting abortion after 15 weeks of gestation.
In Kentucky, Jefferson County Circuit Judge Mitch Perry has issued a temporary restraint order to prevent the state from being passed in 2019 and enforcing a ban caused by a Supreme Court ruling. did.
The Florida and Kentucky decisions seek to maintain the ability of those to end their pregnancy after a historic decision on Friday by the conservative majority Supreme Court. It was carried out in the midst of a surge in proceedings by the abortion rights group.
The ruling empowered the state to refuse, limit, or permit abortion. On Thursday, the Supreme Court dismissed a lower federal court ruling that overridden law-based abortion restrictions in Arizona, Arkansas, and Indiana.
Bans and restrictions are currently in effect or ready to do so in 22 states. Guttmacher Institute, Abortion Advocacy Research Group.
State courts in Texas, Louisiana, and Utah have also temporarily blocked bans in these states since last week, with abortion providers Aidaho, Ohio, Mississippi, and West Virginia. Seeking similar relief in states such as.
The injunction has given the clinic time to continue providing services.
"Delays are still saving lives," said Cima Mohapatra, a professor of health at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. "The longer a safe and accessible abortion is available in these states, the more pregnant people seeking abortion treatment will be helped."
But in the long run Those who support the right to abortion are facing a difficult situation. Many Supreme Courts in these states are dominated by conservative or Republican judges who may be more sympathetic to restricted access to abortion.
Texas lawyer Ken Paxton said Thursday to a Republican-appointed state Supreme Court on Tuesday, a judge who blocked the state's pre-criminal ban from being enforced. I asked you to cancel the order. abortion.
Florida's ban on abortion
The ban on abortion in Florida, 15 weeks after Republican Governor Ron DeSantis signed the law in April, will come into effect on Friday. It was planned. The law reflects Mississippi law at the heart of the Supreme Court proceedings that overturned Roe.
Judge John Cooper of the Circuit Court, on the side of Florida's planned parent-child relationship affiliates and other abortion providers, the law violates the State Constitution's guarantee of privacy rights. I concluded that I am doing it.
State law previously restricted abortion after 24 weeks.
Cooper said his decision would only take effect after signing a written order. This is likely to be after Tuesday.
A spokesperson for Republican Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody said the state would appeal. The case could eventually reach the Florida High Court, its composition changed and now includes all Republican-appointed judges.
Only about one-fifth of the State Supreme Court grants the right to abortion regardless of the Roe v. Wade case. Earlier this month, the Iowa Supreme Court overturned itself, admitting that the state's constitution did not include a "basic right" to abortion.
In Kentucky, Jefferson County Patrol Judge Mitch Perry endorsed two abortion clinics, including a planned parent-child relationship affiliate. The clinic challenged another law, a trigger ban, six weeks after pregnancy, which bans abortions before they know they are pregnant.
In Kentucky, abortion services have been suspended since Friday, when the Supreme Court paved the way for the state to enact new bans. The Kentucky ban allows abortion only to protect people from death and serious injury.
"We are pleased that the court has acknowledged the devastation in Kentucky and decided to stop the federal ban on abortion," the planned parent-child relationship said in a statement. ..
However, this decision is temporary and a further hearing is scheduled for Wednesday on the clinic's request for an injunction to prevent law enforcement.
Republican Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron puts Perry's order on hold, saying the judge has no basis to allow the clinic to resume execution of the abortion under the Kentucky Constitution. Immediately requested the Court of Appeals.
"We can't make the same mistakes we made in the Roe v. Wade case nearly 50 years ago in Kentucky again," he said.
(Report by Natrey Mond in Boston and Joseph Ax in Princeton, NJ, edited by Colleen Jenkins, Jonathan Oatis, and Josie Khao)