By Canadian Press

Abortion providers in North Carolina file federal lawsuit challenging state’s new restrictions

Jun 16, 2023 | 11:09 AM

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Abortion providers in North Carolina filed a federal lawsuit Friday that challenges several provisions of a state law banning most abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy in the dwindling days before the new restrictions take effect.

Planned Parenthood South Atlantic and Dr. Beverly Gray, an OB-GYN at Duke Health, are asking a federal judge to block numerous provisions they argue are unclear and unconstitutional, or to place an injunction on the law to prevent it from being enforced.

The lawsuit in U.S. District Court comes one month after the Republican supermajority in the state’s General Assembly fast-tracked the law through both chambers and overrode a veto from Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper, who called it “an egregious, unacceptable attack on the women of our state.”

He and other abortion-rights supporters have raised concerns about several provisions addressed in the complaint, including one that the plaintiffs argue could prevent providers from performing a medication abortion after 10 weeks of pregnancy, despite another provision stating it’s lawful through 12 weeks.

That is one example of the contradictory and confusing nature of the law, said lead attorney Brigitte Amiri, the deputy director of the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project.

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The new restrictions are set to take effect July 1.

Republicans had pitched the 47-page proposal as a middle-ground change to an existing state law banning nearly all abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy, without exceptions for rape or incest. The new law adds those exceptions, extending the limit through 20 weeks for rape and incest and through 24 weeks for “life-limiting” fetal anomalies, including certain physical or genetic disorders that can be diagnosed prenatally.

Hannah Schoenbaum, The Associated Press