FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: October 28, 2016
Media Release – Alabama Reproductive Rights Advocates (ARRA) group speaks out on Abortion Rights Rulings
Huntsville, AL, October 28, 2016 — ARRA commends the ruling by a federal judge blocking two laws today that would have restricted abortions in Alabama, including one that would prevent clinics from operating within 2,000 feet of public schools.
The second law would ban dilation and evacuation abortions, which are considered safe and commonly performed in the second trimester.
U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson’s Thursday ruling blocks the implementation of the laws because they will likely be found unconstitutional.
In the opinion, Thompson wrote that the state’s efforts to reduce disruption at schools located near two clinics placed an undue burden on women seeking abortion.
“The record contains absolutely no evidence of concerns expressed by the school’s students or their parents about the Huntsville clinic or the demonstrations near it… It’s long past time for our elected officials to stop wasting time and taxpayer money passing laws that violate women’s constitutional rights and start focusing on the needs of women and families in this state,” Susan Thompson, executive director of the ACLU of Alabama wrote.
The closure of two of the state’s five abortion clinics would disproportionately affect low-income women who would have to drive further, even out of state, to get abortions, Thompson wrote. Huntsville and Tuscaloosa clinics would have bee affected.
The ACLU of Alabama has challenged seven abortion restrictions passed in Alabama during the last three years.
