Summary: A law preventing abortion clinics from being within 2,000 feet of public schools was blocked by a federal judge in Alabama.
Abortion restrictions in Alabama were blocked by a federal judge today. The two laws proposed included the restriction on the location of abortion clinics from being within 2,000 feet of public schools and a ban on dilation and evacuation abortions.
U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson blocked the laws from being implemented until a hearing on the legal challenge brought by the ACLU of Alabama can be heard. It is expected that the laws will be found unconstitutional.
Read Judge Rules Mississippi Religious Freedom Law Unconstitutional.
Thompson wrote, “The record contains absolutely no evidence of concerns expressed by the school’s students or their parents about the Huntsville clinic or the demonstrations near it. As to Highlands, the State’s two interests (minimizing disruption and supporting a parent’s right to control their children’s exposure to the subject of abortion) would not in any way be furthered by the closing or relocation of the Huntsville clinic. The closure of two of the state’s five abortion clinics would disproportionately affect low-income women who would have to drive further, even out of state, to get abortions.”
In the past three years the ACLU of Alabama has challenged seven passed abortion restrictions. Executive director of ACLU of Alabama Susan Watson said, “It’s long past time for our elected officials to stop wasting time and taxpayer money passing laws that violate women’s constitutional rights and start focusing on the needs of women and families in this state. Alabama women deserve to access their rights protected by the Constitution. And our doctors deserve to be able to provide care in clinics, not fight medically unnecessary laws in courthouses.”
See Wisconsin Passes New Abortion Restrictions.
The law would shut down the abortion clinics in Tuscaloosa and Huntsville where over half of the State’s abortions were performed in 2014.
Do you think abortion clinics should be allowed to be located across the street from any type of school? Tell us in the comments below.
To learn more about other abortion restrictions, read Supreme Court Strikes Down Texas Abortion Law.