Battles over abortion have shifted to state courts after the US Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to the procedure nationwide, as a judge blocked a statewide ban in Louisiana and clinics in Idaho, Kentucky, Mississippi and Texas sued seeking similar relief.
People both for and against the decision to strike down the Roe v Wade decision gathered outside the Supreme Court in Washington on 24 June. Photo: AFP
The five are among the 13 states with "trigger laws" designed to ban or severely restrict abortions once the Supreme Court overturned the landmark 1973 Roe v Wade ruling that recognized a right to the procedure, as it did on Friday.
In Louisiana, abortion services that had been halted since Friday began resuming after Orleans Parish Civil District Court Judge Robin Giarrusso on Monday issued a temporary restraining order blocking the state from carrying out its ban.
The order came shortly after Hope Medical Group for Women in Shreveport - one of Louisiana's three abortion clinics - sued, arguing Louisiana's trigger laws "lack constitutionally required safeguards to prevent arbitrary enforcement."
The judge set a 8 July hearing to decide whether to further block enforcement of the ban, which Hope Medical said violated its due process rights under the state's constitution.
In Republican-led Texas, where a ban on abortions after six weeks of pregnancy went into effect last year, a judge in Harris County will hear arguments on Tuesday on whether to block officials from enforcing pre-Roe v Wade abortion prohibitions.
Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton had said in a Friday advisory that while the state's 2021 trigger ban would not take effect for 30 days after the Supreme Court's ruling, prosecutors could immediately pursue cases based on pre-1973 laws.
In Idaho, a Planned Parenthood affiliate asked the state's highest court to block enforcement of a "trigger" law banning abortion that the Republican-controlled state legislature passed in 2020 that would take effect 19 August.
Similar lawsuits were filed by abortion providers in Kentucky and Mississippi, asking state courts to block enforcement of "trigger" bans that they say would violate the states' constitutions.
Republican Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry in a statement said his office was "fully prepared to defend these laws in our state courts, just as we have in our federal courts."
His Republican counterparts in Kentucky and Mississippi, Daniel Cameron and Lynn Fynch, did not respond to requests for comment, nor did Paxton. A spokesperson for Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden, a Republican, declined to comment.
The cases are among several challenging Republican-backed abortion laws under state constitutions after the US Supreme Court's ruling.
A Utah branch of Planned Parenthood on Saturday sued over that state's trigger ban, and abortion rights advocates plan to challenge an Ohio ban on abortions after six weeks that took effect on Friday.
In Florida, a group of abortion providers went before a state court judge to argue a challenge to that state's new Republican-backed ban on abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, which they say violates Florida's constitution. (
- Reuters