North Carolina's 20-week abortion ban challenged in federal court
North Carolina abortion providers and abortion rights advocates asked a federal appeals court Thursday to invalidate a state statute that generally bars women from terminating their pregnancies after 20 weeks, a law similar to those on the books in more than a dozen states.
Two of the three judges on the panel expressed doubts about the state’s defense that the lawsuit is a case without a controversy because no abortion providers in North Carolina have ever been prosecuted under the decades-old law.
“It seems to me the only reason you would defend a lawsuit is because you want to preserve for the state the opportunity to enforce this statute,” Judge Diana Gribbon Motz told the state’s lawyer.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit is reviewing a 1973 law barring abortions after 20 weeks with exceptions for health concerns. The lawsuit was filed after the state legislature amended the statute in 2015 to narrow the medical exemptions. The law has been blocked since a district court judge struck down the measure in 2019.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/legal-issues/north-carolina-abortion-ban-appeal/2021/05/06/1010a84e-add5-11eb-ab4c-986555a1c511_story.html