LOUISVILLE, Ky. (Washington Insider Magazine) – As courts across the nation consider whether state constitutions allow the procedure in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade last week, a judge in Kentucky temporarily halted that state’s nearly total abortion ban on Thursday, while a judge in Florida said that he would temporarily halt a 15-week prohibition from going into effect there.
The so-called trigger law in Kentucky is put on hold as a result of the decision, which was intended to go into effect following the Supreme Court of the United States’ decision to abolish federal constitutional safeguards for abortions. Since the Supreme Court left it to the states to determine whether abortion is lawful inside their boundaries, abortion rights advocates have been forced to resort to state constitutions for safety. The case parallels legal conflicts taking place in courts around the nation.
Certain legal arguments concern trigger laws, such as those in Florida and Kentucky, which were created precisely to go into force if Roe were to be overturned. Some of them concern long-standing laws that have never been enforced. Other abortion restrictions that had been put on hold while the Roe decision was being considered are now being implemented.
Judge John C. Cooper in Florida said on Thursday that he would temporarily halt the 15-week abortion ban’s implementation following arguments from reproductive health professionals that the state constitution explicitly protects the right to the procedure.
Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, stated that the state will appeal.
Cooper’s judgment won’t take effect until he writes a formal order, which didn’t seem to occur until Tuesday, so the 15-week ban is set to start on Friday as planned. There are concerns about whether certain patients might be impacted by the gap. According to statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the significant proportion of abortions in Florida take place before the 15-week cutoff. Florida’s existing abortion law permits abortion up to 24 weeks.
According to ABC NEWS, the flurry of judicial activity has put clinics and patients in a bind and confused situations.
The governor of Arizona disagrees and has stated that a new law that forbids abortion after 15 weeks assumes priority. However, the attorney general of Arizona indicated on Wednesday that a complete abortion prohibition that has been in effect since before statehood may be implemented. Out of concern for legal repercussions, abortion clinics in the state quickly ceased offering the practise.
Even though an abortion ban there is now being temporarily delayed, Louisiana’s attorney general issued a warning to doctors not to conduct abortions.
If the surgery is required to preserve the pregnant woman’s life, if the fetus has a fatal defect, or if it is essential to avert significant damage, exceptions are allowed under Florida law. It does not provide exceptions in circumstances of rape, incest, or human trafficking.
Using a 1980 state constitutional provision that guaranteed a broad right to privacy and that the state Supreme Court deemed to cover abortion, reproductive health practitioners challenged the law. By dismissing a ballot measure that would have crippled its protections, Florida voters reinforced the right to privacy in 2012, according to plaintiffs.
The state maintained that because abortion doctors were working as 3rd parties on behalf of their patients, they lacked standing to assert a claim of a fundamental right to privacy. The state has an interest in preserving health and preserving potential life, according to attorneys, who also claimed that the right to privacy guaranteed by the state’s constitution did not include the right to an abortion.
DeSantis said in a statement that the Florida Supreme Court had previously erroneously construed Florida’s right to privacy as covering the option to have an abortion.
The decision on Thursday permitted abortions in Kentucky to continue after they were suddenly stopped last week. Nearly 200 women with appointments at EMW Women’s Surgical Center, one of the 2 abortion clinics in Louisville, have recently been turned away, according to Heather Gatnarek, an advocate for the American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky.
In a joint statement, Planned Parenthood and the ACLU expressed their relief that the “cruel abortion bans” had been overturned and noted that many Kentuckians had been compelled to bear pregnancies against their choice or leave the state in search of medical treatment since last week’s decision.
The Republican candidate for governor and attorney general of Kentucky, Daniel Cameron, said he wants to appeal Thursday’s decision because it is not supported by the state constitution.
Following a lawsuit brought by abortion clinics alleging that women were being compelled to continue a pregnancy against their choice in violation of state law, Kentucky made its decision. They had urged the judge to temporarily halt both the Kentucky statute that aimed to outlaw abortions at 6 weeks together with the trigger law.
Mitch Perry, the circuit judge for Jefferson County, concurred to halt the six-week prohibition temporarily. A federal judge already blocked that action.
The law in Kentucky has a small exemption that permits a doctor to carry out a procedure required to stop irreversible harm or the death of a pregnant woman. Abortions are prohibited in cases of rape or incest.
A ballot issue that, if approved, will declare that there is no state constitutional right to abortion will be put to the vote by Kentuckians in November. In preparation for the election, both parties of the abortion debate are busy campaigning.
