Lawsuits Challenging State Abortion bans

#1

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/1 ... ous-rights

Jewish women sue to overturn Kentucky's abortion ban, saying it violates their religious rights

Congregation L'Dor Va-Dor v. State of Florida (Florida state court)

In June, the Jewish congregation L'Dor Va-Dor filed [a class action] suit in Florida, alleging that the state’s abortion ban violated that same state’s statute guaranteeing religious freedom. Specifically, the lawsuit cited the Jewish law which permits or even requires abortion in many circumstances, including to preserve ‘the health, mental or physical well-being” of those who become pregnant. A similar suit, brought by the ACLU on behalf of a group calling itself Hoosier Jews for Choice, is pending in Indiana. [ Hoosier Jews for Choice v. State of Indiana https://www.wbiw.com/2022/09/08/a-class ... h-s-e-a-1/]

Now a third lawsuit, brought by three Jewish women in Kentucky state court] asserts that Kentucky laws providing that “life begins” at the moment of fertilization and banning abortions after six weeks, are equally violative of their religious traditions. This suit differs from the others, however, in that it poses not only religious but practical problems—faced by not just those who may wish to terminate a pregnancy, but by those who actually want to become pregnant. Sobel, Kalb, and Baron v. Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron, Jefferson County Circuit Court

As reported by Yonat Shimron, for The Washington Post:

What’s distinct about the latest suit is that all three of the Jewish women require in vitro fertilization to become pregnant but are afraid of beginning the procedure without greater clarity about what the law will permit them to do with excess frozen embryos. The suit claims the women must spend exorbitant fees to keep their embryos frozen indefinitely, and they are unsure whether they will face felony charges if they dispose of them.

As Shimron reports, the suit also states that “because pregnancies resulting from infertility treatments have a higher rate of stillbirth, the women foresee the possibility of not wanting to carry their IVF pregnancies to term if the fetus is not viable.”

Moar links : https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/st ... ortion-ban

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/1 ... ally-means

https://www.kentucky.com/news/politics- ... 56996.html

#2

The situation in AZ is that we have an 1864 law completely outlawing abortion with some draconian consequences, and a modern 15-week ban. No one knows what is going on, and I'm oversimplifying as there are more overlapping laws involved. Some prosecutors say they will enforce the 1864, others not so much. One judge said the 1864 ban was the law of the land, another said the modern 15-week one was.

So there is a lawsuit not so much to overturn any ban yet, but more just to clarify for physicians what they can and cannot do.

MULTIPLE OVERLAPPING ABORTION BANS HAVE CAUSED CONFUSION AND CHAOS, FORCING ARIZONA PROVIDERS TO CEASE ABORTION SERVICES
OCTOBER 4, 2022
TUCSON, Ariz. — Today, an Arizona physician and the Arizona Medical Association filed a lawsuit in state court, asking the court to allow abortion care to resume through 15 weeks of pregnancy. The lawsuit seeks to clarify doctors’ obligations under Arizona’s multiple overlapping abortion laws. The challenge comes a week after another court allowed a 150-year-old criminal abortion ban to take effect. The century-old law is one of the most extreme abortion bans in the country, with no exceptions for rape, incest, or threats to a pregnant person’s health. Within a day of this ban being reinstated, a separate law banning abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy — which was passed in March — took effect.

In the lawsuit filed today, abortion providers argue that there is no clarity over which state laws govern the provision of abortion care in Arizona, including how the total abortion ban tracing back to 1864 interacts with other abortion laws on the books, such as the most recent state law banning abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy. The state has dozens of conflicting abortion laws in effect, causing uncertainty and confusion over how the laws work in conjunction and in practice. The lawsuit asks the court to clarify Arizona’s numerous abortion laws and argues that physicians should be allowed to provide abortion care in the state through 15 weeks of pregnancy in accordance with state law.

https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/law ... ss-arizona
The lawsuit: https://reproductiverights.org/wp-conte ... rizona.pdf