Judge Robin Giarrusso from New Orleans, Louisiana, blocked the enforcement of the controversial ‘trigger law’ in the state on Monday, 27 June, which banned abortions completely, with no exceptions for cases involving rape or incest.
This temporary restraining order was granted in response to a lawsuit filed by the Center for Reproductive Rights on behalf of local abortion providers; the lawsuit argued that the trigger law that would take effect immediately upon Roe vs Wade being struck down was “constitutionally vague” and too ambiguous, bringing the judge to temporarily block its enforcement until the hearing on July 8.
On June 24, the Supreme Court of the United States overturned Roe vs Wade (1973) which granted people who can get pregnant the constitutional right to termination of pregnancy.
The overturning of this ruling makes it so that access to abortion can be decided by individual states.
Louisiana is one of 13 states with such ‘trigger laws’ that could be enforced since these states have pre-Roe, anti-abortion laws, which would ban or greatly restrict access to abortions.
Some states in a similar predicament, namely Utah, Florida and Arizona, have had similar lawsuits filed to block these trigger laws.
In Utah, a judge has granted a temporary restraining order blocking a trigger law from being enforced in response to a lawsuit from Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), with the court date set for July 11.
In Florida, a judge is processing a request from a coalition of abortion providers and activist groups to block the state’s law banning abortions after 15 weeks, the ruling for which is expected on Thursday, June 30.
On Saturday, June 25, the ACLU and a pro-choice group in Arizona filed an emergency motion hoping to block a law from 2021 that could potentially ban access to abortions entirely.
Speaking to the Washington Post, Mary Ziegler, a law professor specialising in abortion, said that “the injunction on Louisiana’s trigger ban will almost certainly be lifted.”
(With inputs from Reuters, The Guardian, and the Washington Post.)
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