WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court on Friday turned down an appeal asking it to revive an Alabama law that would have banned the procedure used in the vast majority of second-trimester abortions.
The justices gave no reasons for declining to hear the case. Justice Clarence Thomas issued a concurring opinion that called the procedure gruesome and unconstitutional. "This case serves as a stark reminder," he wrote, "that our abortion jurisprudence has spiraled out of control."
The procedure, known as dilation and extraction, involves dilating the woman's cervix and removing the fetus in pieces. Opponents of abortion call it "dismemberment abortion."
Thomas adopted that terminology. "The notion that anything in the Constitution prevents states from passing laws prohibiting the dismembering of a living child is implausible," he wrote.
The Alabama law, enacted in 2016, was blocked by lower courts. It would have affected 99% of abortions performed in the state after 15 weeks.
In defending the law, Alabama officials said it fell short of a complete prohibition.
"Although the law is a procedure 'ban,'" the state told the Supreme Court, "its only practical requirement is that a doctor kill the unborn child through a medically appropriate procedure before removing the unborn child's body from the woman."
The state proposed three methods of terminating fetal life before extraction: injecting potassium chloride into the fetus' heart, cutting the umbilical cord and injecting digoxin, a heart-failure drug, into the amniotic fluid. Lower courts ruled that these methods were not safe, effective or available, and they struck down the law as inconsistent with Supreme Court precedent.
Quoting a 2016 Supreme Court decision, Chief Judge Ed Carnes of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in Atlanta, said problems with "the fetal demise methods -- their attendant risks; their technical difficulty; their untested nature; the time and cost associated with performing them; the lack of training opportunities; and the inability to recruit experienced practitioners to perform them -- support the conclusion that the act would 'place a substantial obstacle in the path of a woman seeking an abortion before the fetus attains viability.'"
"So does the fact," he added, "that every court to consider the issue has ruled that laws banning dismemberment abortions are invalid and that fetal demise methods are not a suitable workaround."
Eight other states have similar laws, Alabama said in its brief seeking Supreme Court review of the case, Harris v. West Alabama Women's Center, No. 18-837.
Also Friday, a federal judge on Friday blocked an Indiana law that would ban the dilation and extraction procedure. The law was set to take effect Monday.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana sued on behalf of two doctors who perform dilation and evacuation abortions. Under the law, a doctor who performs the procedure could face a felony charge, punishable by up to six years in prison.
Indiana's attorneys called the procedure "brutal and inhumane," and maintained the state had a valid role in limiting types of abortion procedures, citing the 2007 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that upheld a federal law banning the method its opponents call partial-birth abortion.
ACLU attorneys argued that the ban would put a "substantial and unwarranted burden on women's ability to obtain second-trimester, pre-viability abortions."
U.S. District Judge Sarah Evans Barker, who was nominated as a judge by President Ronald Reagan, granted the preliminary injunction blocking the law.
Separately, lawyers with the ACLU, Planned Parenthood and the Center for Reproductive Rights filed a lawsuit challenging a new Georgia law that effectively bans abortions about six weeks into a pregnancy.
The lawsuit, filed on behalf of Georgia abortion providers and an advocacy group, asks a judge to prevent the law from taking effect and to declare it unconstitutional. Otherwise, the law becomes enforceable Jan. 1.
The lawsuit aims "to ensure that everyone has the freedom to make their own health care decisions without politicians looking over their shoulder and the freedom to decide for themselves when to start or expand a family," ACLU of Georgia legal director Sean Young said at a news conference.
The so-called heartbeat law bans abortion once a fetal heartbeat can be detected, which can occur as early as six weeks, before many women know they're pregnant. It's one of a spate of laws passed recently by Republican-controlled legislatures in an attack on the U.S. Supreme Court's 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that legalized abortion nationwide.
Information for this article was contributed by Adam Liptak of The New York Times; and by Tom Davies, Kate Brumback and Ben Nadler of The Associated Press.
A Section on 06/29/2019