Louisiana Supreme Court Says Abortions Must Remain Legal For Now, Despite ‘Trigger Law’

The Louisiana Supreme Court rejected the state attorney general’s request to enforce abortion ban laws after they were put on hold by an Orleans Civil Court Judge.

“A judge had temporarily blocked enforcement of Louisiana’s “trigger law” banning nearly all abortions last week. The judge placed a temporary stay on enforcement following a lawsuit from abortion providers in the state, who argued it was overly vague,” Fox News reported.

“Thursday’s state Supreme Court ruling allows that stay to remain in place at least through Friday when abortion providers will make their case in court. Louisiana was the first state to have its abortion bans challenged after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade in late June. It is not the only one, however, as Texas and Kentucky have faced similar issues,” the outlet added.

Louisiana Supreme Court says abortions must remain legal for now, despite 'trigger law' https://t.co/yY8JO5DHZl

— Fox News (@FoxNews) July 7, 2022

Earlier this week, the Kentucky Supreme Court denied the state attorney general’s emergency appeal to have a near-total abortion ban reinstated after it was blocked by a circuit court judge last week.

After the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last month, it triggered a Kentucky law, the Human Life Protection Act, that bans all abortions except any performed to save a mother’s life or prevent her serious injury.

The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit on behalf of abortion providers in Kentucky, claiming the abortion law in the state “unconstitutionally forces women to remain pregnant against their will.”

Last week, a Florida judge temporarily blocked a new 15-week abortion ban days after it took effect in the state.

However, a state appeal means the court’s order has automatically been stayed, keeping the law in place for the time being.

“In a lengthy ruling issued Tuesday, Leon County Circuit Court Judge John Cooper stated that the recent Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization – which overturned Roe v. Wade – has no bearing on this case. That is because while Roe was based on the idea of a right to privacy that is not explicitly in the Constitution, the Florida state constitution specifically does include a right to privacy,” Fox News reported.

“The right to privacy under the Florida Constitution is ‘much broader in scope’ than any privacy right under the United States Constitution,” Cooper wrote.

“Cooper cited other past cases, including a 2003 Florida Supreme Court case that said it would be wrong to compare federal and Florida privacy rights ‘in light of the fact that there is no express federal right of privacy clause.’ As a result of the state right being expressly written into the state constitution, Cooper said there is a higher level of scrutiny, and that ‘any law that implicates the fundamental right of privacy is … presumed to be unconstitutional,'” the Fox report added.

Last week, the Supreme Court released its decision in the highly-anticipated case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.

The court voted in favor of overturning Roe v Wade, the landmark case that legalized abortion.

In early May, a draft majority opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito was leaked to Politico and it set off a firestorm.

“Roe was egregiously wrong from the start,” Alito wrote in the leaked draft.

“We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled,” he wrote in the document. “It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives. We, therefore, hold the Constitution does not confer a right to abortion. Roe and Casey must be overruled, and the authority to regulate abortion must be returned to the people and their elected representatives.”

Late last month,  the Iowa Supreme Court overruled a 2018 decision and held that abortion is not protected by the state’s constitution.

In a fractured decision that reverses a lower court’s decision to block a 24-hour waiting period before an abortion, the court said the previous ruling that established a constitutional right to an abortion insufficiently recognizes that future human lives are at stake.

Judges in Utah and Louisiana have also temporarily blocked trigger laws after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade.