Abortion providers in North Carolina have filed a federal lawsuit that challenges several provisions of a state law banning most abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy.
The new law "will harm patients and impede health care professionals from providing quality care," according to the lawsuit.
The new abortion restrictions, which came from Senate Bill 20, passed after the state legislature overrode Gov. Roy Cooper's veto by the slimmest of margins. The new restrictions are set to start on July 1.
Dr. Beverly Gray is a Duke Health OB-GYN and a named plaintiff in the lawsuit.
"Given the hurried passage of this bill without guidance from the medical community, S.B. 20 lacks clarity and asks patients and health care providers to overcome impossible hurdles to obtain and provide care," she said in a statement released by the ACLU, which announced the lawsuit. "These hurdles are not based in science but are unreasonable and will make it virtually impossible for many people to receive abortion care in our state."
Planned Parenthood South Atlantic is also a named plaintiff in the lawsuit, which asks a federal judge to block many provisions they argue are unclear and unconstitutional, or to place an injunction on the law to prevent it from being enforced.
The new law includes some apparent contradictions, according to the lawsuit, which was filed in the Middle District of North Carolina. One provision seems to ban providers from administering a medication abortion after 10 weeks of pregnancy, while the law also states that medication abortions are legal until 12 weeks pregnancy. Similarly, the lawsuit alleges the law contains contradictions around a 72-hour waiting period required between an initial doctor visit and an abortion procedure. The law allows for an exception in cases of medical emergencies in one section, but requires the 72-hour waiting period with no exceptions in another part, according to the lawsuit.
SB 20 passed just 72 hours after it was first introduced, and many critics of the law say they did not have enough time to review its language.
"Likely as a result of this hurried process, S.B. 20 has injected requirements that are unintelligible, inherently contradictory, irrational, and/or otherwise unconstitutional into every part of the abortion process," according to the lawsuit.
