“While we’re disappointed with this order from the Eighth Circuit, we’re not backing down—this fight is nowhere near over,” Ruth Harlow, senior staff attorney in the ACLU’s Reproductive Freedom Project, said Tuesday. “To the state of Arkansas: We’ll see you back in court.”
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit on Tuesday moved a series of abortion restrictions closer to taking effect in Arkansas.
The court denied a motion to rehear by a panel or by the full court en banc arguments over its decision in August to vacate a district judge’s preliminary injunction against enforcing the new laws.
The measures that won favor from the Eighth Circuit would ban the standard method of abortion provided after approximately 14 weeks of pregnancy in Arkansas. That moves abortion restrictions earlier in pregnancy than the precedent set by the U.S. Supreme Court in Roe v. Wade and its progeny—which is up until the point of viability, now considered to be between 20 and 25 weeks. The new measures would also require clinics to notify a woman’s partner or other family members about an abortion, report a teenager’s abortion to local police and require extensive medical records from all women seeking abortion. The order means the new restrictions could go into effect as soon as Dec. 22, according to attorneys for the plaintiffs.
But they signaled intentions to appeal the ruling.
“These Arkansas laws represent the worst motives of anti-abortion politicians: to shame, stigmatize, and humiliate abortion patients, and to make abortion care difficult if not impossible to access,” Ruth Harlow, senior staff attorney in the ACLU’s Reproductive Freedom Project, said in a written statement. “While we’re disappointed with this order from the Eighth Circuit, we’re not backing down—this fight is nowhere near over. To the state of Arkansas: We’ll see you back in court.”
The lawsuit was filed by the ACLU, the ACLU of Arkansas, the Center for Reproductive Rights, and the law firm of O’Melveny & Myers on behalf of Frederick W. Hopkins, M.D.
Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge and Deputy Solicitor General Vincent Wagner defended the case. The office provided a statement in response to a request for comment: “The attorney general applauds today’s decision denying en banc review. This is another win validating the pro-life laws in Arkansas.”
Rutledge is a Republican who backed the lawsuit Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed last week in the U.S. Supreme Court seeking to overturn votes of swing states where Vice President Joe Biden defeated President Donald Trump. The high court declined to hear that case.
“These extreme bans and restrictions would push abortion care out of reach to many who need it and brazenly intrude on people’s most personal medical decisions,” said Holly Dickson, executive director of the ACLU of Arkansas. “While we’re disappointed the Eighth Circuit declined to rehear the case, this fight is not over. The people of Arkansas have a constitutional right to control their own lives and make their own medical decisions, and we’ll never stop fighting to protect it.”
If the case is appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, it will be one of many abortion bans passed by states around the country, some of which are more restrictive than the laws in Arkansas. Several states have laws now under injunction that would ban abortion after six weeks gestation, which is before many women know they’re pregnant. Georgia’s approximately six weeks ban allows for exceptions for rape if a woman reports it to police. Alabama has passed a law banning all abortion, with no exceptions for rape or incest. Attorneys and legislators defending those laws have expressed the goal of using them to overturn Roe v. Wade, now that the Supreme Court has a conservative majority with recent appointees by a Republican president.
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