By Nate Raymond
(Reuters) -Louisiana abortion clinics can remain in operation after a judge on Thursday barred the state from enforcing laws banning abortions designed to take effect after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to the procedure nationwide.
Judge Donald Johnson in Baton Rouge issued a preliminary injunction barring the state from enforcing so-called “trigger” laws designed to ban abortions should the Supreme Court ever overturn the 1973 ruling Roe v. Wade ruling, as it did in June.
The ruling came amid a flurry of litigation by abortion rights groups and clinics nationally seeking to halt or stall bans and restrictions from taking effect in mostly Republican-led states following the Supreme Court’s decision.
Those states include Louisiana, which like 12 other states adopted “trigger” laws banning abortion upon the conservative-majority U.S. Supreme Court’s issuing its June 24 ruling.
Hope Medical Group for Women in Shreveport, one of Louisiana’s three abortion clinics, sued soon after to block its enforcement of Louisiana’s laws in order to resume services.
The clinic argued Louisiana’s three trigger laws violated its due process rights under the state’s constitution and “lack constitutionally required safeguards to prevent arbitrary enforcement.”
A New Orleans judge on June 27 temporarily blocked the laws’ enforcement, but they went back into effect after a different judge July 8 transferred the case to Baton Rouge.
Johnson then put a temporary hold on the laws’ enforcement on July 12 while he considered whether to issue Thursday’s preliminary injunction, which remains in effect until a trial can be held on the clinic’s request for a permanent order.
“Today’s ruling is critical in ensuring that women in Louisiana continue to have access to comprehensive – and sometimes life-saving – healthcare services,” Joanna Wright, the clinic’s lawyer, said in a statement.
Republican Attorney General Jeff Landry did not respond to requests for comment.
(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Aurora Ellis)
