Judge overturns abortion restriction in North Carolina, but maintains another

RALEIGH, North Carolina – A federal judge ruled Friday that a provision in North Carolina’s abortion laws that requires doctors to document the location of a pregnancy before prescribing abortion pills should be permanently blocked, saying it was too vague to be enforced effectively. reasonable.

The implementation of this requirement was already discontinued last year by U.S. District Judge Catherine Eagles until a lawsuit challenging parts of the abortion law enacted by the Republican-dominated General Assembly in 2023 was further litigated. Eagles now says a permanent injunction would be issued at some point.

But Eagles on Friday restored enforcement of another provision she previously blocked, which required abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy to be performed in hospitals. In light of the 2022 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that overturned Roe v.she wrote, lawmakers “need only to offer rational speculation for their legislative decisions regulating abortion.”

In this case, lawmakers argued that the hospital requirement would protect maternal health by reducing risks for some women who could suffer serious complications after 12 weeks, Eagles said. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic and a doctor who initially sued have offered “credible and largely undisputed medical and scientific evidence” that the hospital’s requirement “will unnecessarily make these abortions more dangerous for many women and more expensive,” Eagles added.

But “plaintiffs have not denied every conceivable basis that the General Assembly might have had for enacting the hospitalization requirement,” wrote Eagles, who was appointed to the court by President Barack Obama, in overturning a preliminary injunction on the hospital requirement.

Unlike challenges in other states like South Carolina and Florida, which have sought to overturn abortion laws entirely, the Eagles rulings still mean that most of North Carolina’s abortion laws have been updated since the end of Roe. v. GOP state lawmakers overrode Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto and enacted the law in May 2023. It has significantly reduced access to abortion from the previous state ban on most abortions after 20 weeks to now after 12 weeks. The hospital requirement would apply to exceptions to the ban after 12 weeks, such as in cases of rape or incest or “life-limiting” fetal anomalies.

Eagles on Friday asserted the blocking of the provision in the abortion law that requires doctors to document the “intrauterine location of a pregnancy” before dispensing abortion medications.

Lawyers representing House Speaker Tim Moore and Senate leader Phil Berger, who are defending the law, argued that the documentation protected the health of women with ectopic pregnancies, which can be dangerous and when ruptured can be similar to symptoms expected from a medical abortion, according to the opinion.

But Eagles wrote that the medication in a medication abortion does not worsen the risks of complications from an ectopic pregnancy. And she remained convinced that the law is unconstitutionally vague and subjects abortion providers to allegations that they broke the law — and possible penalties — if they are unable to locate an embryo through an ultrasound because the pregnancy is too young.

The provision “violates plaintiffs’ constitutional due process rights,” she wrote.

Spokespeople for Planned Parenthood, Berger and Moore did not respond to emails Friday seeking comment. The Eagles’ upcoming final judgment could be appealed.

State Attorney General Josh Stein, a Democrat, supporter of abortion rights and 2024 gubernatorial candidate, was officially a defendant in the case. But lawyers in his office asked Eagles to block both provisions, largely agreeing with Planned Parenthood’s arguments.

The lawsuit was initially filed in June 2023 and contained other challenges to the abortion law that the legislature quickly addressed with new legislation. Eagles issued an injunction last September blocking the two provisions still under discussion Friday. Eagles said last month that it would make a final decision in the case without going through a full trial.

North Carolina still remains a destination for many out-of-state women seeking abortions, as most Southern states have implemented laws banning abortions after six weeks of pregnancy – before many women know they are pregnant – or near-total bans.