© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Abortion rights campaigners take part in nationwide demonstrations following the leaked Supreme Court docket opinion suggesting the opportunity of overturning the Roe v. Wade abortion rights choice, at Duncan Plaza in New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.
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By Nate Raymond
(Reuters) -Battles over abortion shifted to state courts on Monday after the U.S. Supreme Court docket overturned the constitutional proper to the process nationwide, as judges blocked statewide bans in Louisiana and Utah and clinics in Idaho, Kentucky, Mississippi and Texas sued looking for related reduction.
The six are among the many 13 states with “set off legal guidelines” designed to ban or severely limit abortions as soon as the Supreme Court docket overturned the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that acknowledged a proper to the process, because it did on Friday.
In Louisiana, abortion providers that had been halted since Friday started resuming after Orleans Parish Civil District Court docket Decide Robin Giarrusso on Monday issued a short lived restraining order https://tmsnrt.rs/3OEBEbG blocking the state from finishing up its ban.
The order got here shortly after Hope Medical Group for Ladies in Shreveport – considered one of Louisiana’s three abortion clinics – sued, arguing Louisiana’s set off legal guidelines “lack constitutionally required safeguards to stop arbitrary enforcement.”
Afterward Monday in Utah, third District Court docket Decide Andrew Stone, on the request of a Deliberate Parenthood affiliate, issued a short lived restraining order that might permit abortion providers to renew within the state after a 2020 ban took impact on Friday.
“Right now is a win, however it is just step one in what is going to undoubtedly be an extended and tough combat,” Karrie Galloway, president and CEO of Deliberate Parenthood Affiliation of Utah, stated in a press release.
Republican Louisiana Lawyer Common Jeff Landry stated his workplace was “totally ready to defend these legal guidelines in our state courts, simply as we have now in our federal courts.” Republican Utah Lawyer Common Sean Reyes didn’t reply to requests for remark.
The rulings got here as a flurry of lawsuits have been filed nationally difficult Republican-backed abortion legal guidelines underneath state constitutions after Friday’s ruling by the conservative-dominated U.S. Supreme Court docket.
In Republican-led Texas, the place a ban on abortions after six weeks of being pregnant went into impact final 12 months, a choose in Harris County will hear arguments on Tuesday on whether or not to dam officers from implementing pre-Roe v. Wade abortion prohibitions.
Republican Lawyer Common Ken Paxton had stated in a Friday advisory that whereas the state’s 2021 set off ban wouldn’t take impact for 30 days after the Supreme Court docket’s ruling, prosecutors may instantly pursue circumstances primarily based on pre-1973 legal guidelines.
In Idaho, a Deliberate Parenthood affiliate requested the state’s highest court docket to dam enforcement of a “set off” regulation banning abortion that the Republican-controlled state legislature handed in 2020 on account of take impact Aug. 19.
Comparable lawsuits have been filed by abortion suppliers asking state courts to dam enforcement of “set off” bans in Kentucky and Mississippi.
“To be clear, there isn’t a proper to abortion contained within the Commonwealth’s Structure – and we’ll arise towards any baseless declare on the contrary,” Kentucky Lawyer Common Daniel Cameron stated in a press release.
Abortion rights advocates plan to problem an Ohio ban on abortions after six weeks that took impact on Friday, and in Florida, a gaggle of abortion suppliers went earlier than a choose on Monday to argue a problem to that state’s ban on abortions after 15 weeks of being pregnant.
In states the place federal court docket orders have been blocking abortion restrictions primarily based on the Roe precedent, these orders at the moment are being lifted. South Carolina’s ban on abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected is now in impact, Lawyer Common Alan Wilson stated on Monday, after a federal choose placed on maintain an injunction that had prevented its implementation.
