Federal lawsuit filed to block Alabama’s new abortion ban

The American Civil Liberties Union and Planned Parenthood filed the lawsuit on behalf of abortion providers seeking to overturn the nation’s most stringent abortion law. (File Photo: Babak Fakhamzadeh/Flickr, CC BY-NC 2.0)

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Abortion providers asked a federal judge Friday to block an Alabama law that would ban most abortions in the state.

The American Civil Liberties Union and Planned Parenthood filed the lawsuit on behalf of abortion providers seeking to overturn the nation’s most stringent abortion law.

The Alabama law would make performing an abortion at any stage of pregnancy a felony punishable by up to 99 years or life in prison for the abortion provider. The only exception would be when the woman’s health is at serious risk.

The law is set to take effect in November unless blocked by a judge.

The lawsuit says the Alabama law to criminalize abortion is clearly unconstitutional and would harm women by forcing them to continue pregnancies against their will.

“For over 46 years — since the Supreme Court decided Roe v. Wade — U.S. law has recognized the fundamental constitutional right to make the profoundly important and personal decision whether or not to terminate a pregnancy,” the lawsuit reads.

The plaintiffs in the case are the three Alabama clinics that perform abortions, Planned Parenthood and Dr. Yashica Robinson, an obstetrician who also provides abortions at a Huntsville clinic.

Emboldened by new conservatives on the U.S. Supreme Court, Alabama is part of a wave of conservative states seeking to mount new legal challenges to Roe v. Wade, the 1973 landmark Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion nationwide.

Governors in Kentucky, Mississippi, Ohio and Georgia have approved bans on abortion once a fetal heartbeat is detected, which can happen as early as the sixth week of pregnancy.

None of the laws has taken effect and all are expected to be blocked by the courts as the legal challenges play out with an ultimate eye on the Supreme Court.

Supporters of the Alabama law have said they expected a lawsuit and expected to initially lose in court, but they hope the appeal could eventually land before the U.S. Supreme Court.

“My goal with this bill, and I think all of our goals, is to have Roe versus Wade turned over and that decision ability sent back to the states,” Republican Rep. Terri Collins, the bill’s sponsor said when it passed last week.