A federal lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of four abortion-restricting laws passed by Arkansas legislators in 2017 has attracted a lot of attention at the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis, where it is awaiting a review.
Six groups have officially weighed in on the case through amicus, or "friend-of-the-court" briefs lodged at the 8th Circuit since the case was docketed there Aug. 28, exactly a month after a federal judge in Little Rock blocked the state from enforcing the laws, prompting the state to appeal.
Without the injunction issued by U.S. Circuit Judge Kristine Baker, three of the laws would have taken effect Aug. 1 and the fourth was to be implemented Jan. 1.
While a three-judge panel of the federal appellate court is expected to hear oral arguments on the state's appeal, U.S. Circuit Clerk Michael Gans said Thursday that likely won't happen until at least September.
The laws are Act 45, which bans a common second-trimester abortion procedure, dilation and evacuation; Act 603, which requires a woman's sexual partner or other family members to be notified of and consent to the disposal of fetal tissue after an abortion; Act 1018, which requires doctors to notify local law enforcement agencies when an abortion is performed on a girl 16 or younger; and Act 733, which requires doctors to ask the woman whether she knows the sex of the fetus, and if so, requires the doctor to review her previous medical records in an effort to determine if she is using abortion as a means of selecting a child's sex.
The lawsuit is known as Frederick W. Hopkins v. Larry Jegley, case No. 4:17cv404 at the district court level and case No. 17-2879 at the appellate court.
Meanwhile, three other abortion-related lawsuits in the Eastern District of Arkansas are inching along. And last month, a fifth lawsuit was filed in Washington County Circuit Court seeking judicial review of the state Department of Human Services' 2015 decision, at the direction of Gov. Asa Hutchinson, to discontinue Medicaid funding for services provided by Planned Parenthood.
Last week, the state filed a motion to dismiss the Washington County case, but so far, no hearings are scheduled.
In the lawsuit aimed at the four 2017 laws, the first amicus brief was filed Dec. 12, siding with the state in asking the 8th Circuit to reverse Baker's injunction that blocked the enforcement of all four laws.
It is the only one of the amicus briefs siding with the state and was filed by the Eagle Forum Education & Legal Defense Fund, a nonprofit corporation based in St. Louis that was founded in 1981 by Phyllis Schafly.
The corporation says it defends federalism and supports states' autonomy from federal intrusion "in areas -- like public health -- that are of traditionally local concern." It also says it has "a longstanding interest in protecting unborn life," and supports the notion of "judicial restraint."
The second amicus brief was filed March 1 by the National Association of Social Workers, the Arkansas Abortion Support Network, the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape and professor Margaret Drew, an associate professor at the University of Massachusetts Law School.
That brief says it wants to "highlight the dangers and burdens that the four laws at issue will impose on three vulnerable populations in Arkansas: rape survivors, victims of domestic abuse, and minors seeking to terminate their pregnancies."
In the third amicus brief, also filed March 1, a group of attorneys general in 14 states and the District of Columbia challenges what it defines as "four Arkansas state laws that severely curtail access to abortion in that state." The attorneys general represent California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Virginia and Washington.
The last three amicus briefs were filed March 20 on behalf of the plaintiff -- Dr. Frederick Hopkins, who performs abortions at Arkansas Family Planning Clinic in Little Rock.
One was filed by Biomedical Ethicists, a group of 10 physicians and 14 professors from a wide variety of disciplines including law, medicine and public health who study biomedical ethics.
The group's brief frames the lawsuit as "a constitutional challenge to four Arkansas statutes that, collectively, prevent physicians from upholding their ethical obligations." It urges the 8th Circuit to affirm Baker's injunction because the requirements of the laws "would compel physicians to take actions that are wholly inconsistent with their medical ethics obligations."
The next brief was filed by 15 constitutional law scholars from well-known law schools who teach or write about the 14th Amendment as it relates to reproductive rights.
They said they "have a shared interest in ensuring that courts apply the correct legal standards to evaluate constitutional challenges to laws that affect women's reproductive rights." The brief says the four laws at issue "significantly curtail women's reproductive freedom."
The other brief was filed by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, a national nonprofit educational and professional organization that promotes the advancement of women's health through continuing medical education, practice, research and advocacy. It has more than 58,000 members, including 275 obstetrician/gynecologists in Arkansas.
The brief focuses solely on Act 45, which it says criminalizes dilation and extraction, a 30-minute outpatient procedure that is "the safest and most common method of second-trimester abortion in Arkansas," and also "constitutes the overwhelming majority of abortions in the United States starting early in the second trimester."
Noting that the state suggests that the law allows physicians to perform the procedure if they perform an additional procedure first, the brief says, "ACOG is not aware of any physician in Arkansas willing to perform D&E if the Ban goes into effect, rendering second-trimester abortions effectively unavailable for all women who require it."
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Metro on 04/08/2018