A Louisiana law that bans certain surgical abortion procedures was found to be unconstitutional.
U.S. District Judge Thomas Porteous declared, “This act’s broad language seems to purposefully create confusion and ambiguity,” and said that the law would interfere with a woman’s constitutional right to abortion.
Although anti-choice activists claimed that only late-term procedures were targeted, abortion rights advocates said that the law would effectively ban all abortions because the provision forbids any abortions in which a part of the fetus enters the birth canal. Center for Reproductive Law and Policy (CRLP) attorney Priscilla Smith explained, “Every abortion procedure is through the vaginal canal.”
The New-York based CRLP reported that late-term abortion bans have been passed in 28 states. These laws have been challenged by abortion rights advocates in 20 states, and the laws were blocked at least in part in 19 states.
