Abortion Trigger Law Challenges Play Out In Courts With Mixed Results

AP: Court Allows SC To Enforce More Restrictive Abortion Law
A law restricting abortions in South Carolina after six weeks of pregnancy can take effect immediately in the state, a federal court ruled Monday. The U.S. District Court in South Carolina lifted its prior hold on the enforcement of a state law passed last year that bans most abortions if an ultrasound detects a so-called fetal heartbeat, usually around six weeks into a pregnancy. (Collins, 6/27)

Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Mississippi Trigger Law Certified By Attorney General
Abortion will be illegal in Mississippi starting July 7, after Attorney General Lynn Fitch certified that the Supreme Court had overturned Roe v. Wade Monday morning. The state's abortion trigger law, passed in 2007, bans abortion 10 days after the attorney general certifies the court's decision. Once the ban takes effect, anyone who performs or attempts to perform an abortion will be charged with a felony punishable by a prison sentence of up to 10 years. (Perlis, 6/27)

Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Jackson Abortion Clinic Sues State Over Abortion Trigger Law
Jackson Women's Health Organization, Mississippi's only abortion clinic, filed suit against the state Monday afternoon in an attempt to halt the trigger law that would ban abortion in 10 days. The lawsuit comes only hours after Attorney General Lynn Fitch certified that Roe v. Wade had been overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court, setting the trigger law into motion. The clinic, often called the Pink House, is being represented by a number of firms including the Mississippi Center for Justice, the Center for Reproductive Rights and Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP. (Perlis, 6/27)

But abortion supporters score wins in Louisiana, Utah, and Michigan —

The 19th: Abortions Can Continue In Louisiana And Utah For Now
Louisiana and Utah’s abortion trigger bans were blocked Monday after lawsuits were filed in separate state courts. A state district judge in New Orleans temporarily blocked an immediate statewide abortion ban until July 8, when the court will consider the legal challenge. A judge in Utah also blocked a ban for the next 14 days after Planned Parenthood filed against its trigger law. More lawsuits are coming in other states with trigger laws and pre-Roe bans on abortion. (Padilla, 6/27)

Crain's Detroit Business: Beaumont-Spectrum Reverses Course, Will Maintain Pre-Ruling Abortion Policies
BHSH System reversed course Saturday after blowback from a previous decision to ban abortion at its 22 hospitals a day earlier. Michigan's largest health system had previously said Friday in a memo to employees it planned to follow a 1931 abortion ban on Michigan that is currently on hold under a judge's injunction. That court order means abortion remains legal in Michigan even after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade on Friday. But after immediate backlash, BHSH said in a statement posted late Saturday on its website that its thinking has "evolved." (Walsh, 6/27)

Detroit Free Press: Whitmer To Michigan Supreme Court: End Confusion Over Abortion
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer again pressed the Michigan Supreme Court for quick action on her abortion lawsuit Monday, citing confusion — including from the state's largest hospital system — that has emerged in Michigan since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade on Friday. Friday's ruling "has already resulted in uncertainty, confusion, and efforts to contract abortion access in Michigan," despite a court order in another lawsuit that is supposed to temporarily maintain the status quo, Whitmer said in a court filing. (Egan and Boucher, 6/27)

More legal news from Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, and Wisconsin —

AP: Florida Judge Hears Arguments On State's New Abortion Law 
Reproductive health providers on Monday asked a Florida judge to block a new 15 week abortion ban from taking effect this week, arguing that the state constitution guarantees access to the procedure. Planned Parenthood and other health centers are seeking a temporary emergency injunction to stop the law approved this year by Florida’s GOP-controlled legislature and Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis. It is set to go into effect Friday. (Izaguirre, 6/27)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Georgia Anti-Abortion Law Likely To Remain On Hold Through At Least Mid-July
A federal appeals court has asked attorneys on both sides of the challenge to Georgia’s anti-abortion law to file additional documents in response to last week’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade. Reproductive rights groups and abortion providers sued Georgia in 2019 after the Legislature passed an abortion law outlawing the procedure in most cases once a doctor can detect fetal cardiac activity, typically about six weeks into a pregnancy and before many women know they are pregnant. (Prabhu, 6/27)

AP: ACLU Lawsuit: Abortion Ban Violates Kentucky Constitution
Kentucky’s new abortion ban is being challenged by abortion-rights supporters, who filed a lawsuit Monday that says women are being “forced to remain pregnant against their will” in violation of the state’s constitution. The state’s Republican attorney general, Daniel Cameron, responded by vowing to fight any “baseless claim” made against enforcing the abortion ban. The suit takes aim at a 2019 Kentucky law that called for an immediate halt to nearly all abortions in the event that the Roe v. Wade ruling were to be overturned. The state law went into effect Friday — and abortions ended abruptly in Kentucky — when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled to end federal constitutional protections for abortions. (Schreiner and Lovan, 6/27)

AP: Anti-Abortion Groups Look To Update 1849 Wisconsin Ban 
Anti-abortion groups in Wisconsin say they’ll work with lawmakers next year to pass legislation that will update or replace the state’s 1849 abortion ban, which led doctors across Wisconsin to stop providing abortions on Friday after the Supreme Court struck down the landmark abortion rights decision in Roe v. Wade. Some Democrats and abortion rights supporters have questioned the validity of a law that had been on the books for 173 years but wasn’t enforced due to the Roe decision. (Venhuizen, 6/27)

NBC News: Wisconsin Gov. Vows To Grant Clemency To Doctors Charged Under State Abortion Ban
Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat, vowed over the weekend to grant clemency to anyone charged under the state’s 1849 law banning most abortions. That law, enacted more than a century before Roe v. Wade, has remained on the books in the state and has technically retaken effect following the Supreme Court ruling Friday overturning the landmark case. (Edelman, 6/27)

In updates on Texas' ban —

The Texas Tribune: Texas Abortion Groups File Last-Ditch Suit To Hold Off Ban For A Bit Longer
Texas abortion providers are making a last-ditch effort to temporarily resume procedures by challenging a pre-Roe v. Wade abortion ban that has not been enforced for nearly a half-century, but that some abortion opponents argue could be enforced after the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the constitutional right to an abortion. The providers filed a lawsuit on Monday, and a Harris County judge will hear arguments on Tuesday for implementing a temporary restraining order to block enforcement of the old ban, which criminalized both performing abortions and assisting anyone who performs abortions in Texas. (Oxner and Douglas, 6/27)

Dallas Morning News: Tarrant County DA Says Office Will Prosecute Abortion Law Violations
Tarrant County District Attorney Sharen Wilson said she will enforce Texas laws on abortion following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. In a statement posted to Twitter on Friday, Wilson said her office will review all cases submitted to it; if facts warrant prosecution, she will present cases to a grand jury for consideration. (Bahari, 6/27)

Houston Chronicle: Texas Abortion Funds Freeze Indefinitely As Supreme Court Shakes Landscape
Texas abortion funds have played a critical role over the past 10 months for women trying to evade the state’s new six-week abortion ban, helping them pay for and travel to providers in states where the procedure is still legal. But when the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday overturned Roe v. Wade, upending nearly 50 years of federal abortion protections, those same groups were not offering help. Many announced instead they are “pausing” their operations while they reviewed the ruling and existing state laws. “We want to protect our abortion fund staff and volunteers to the greatest degree possible from the risk of arrest and involvement with the racist criminal justice system,” the Lilith Fund, the oldest abortion fund in the state, said in a statement. (Blackman and Goldenstein, 6/27)

And fetal-tissue research is in the crosshairs in Pennsylvania —

AP: Pennsylvania House Targets Colleges' Fetal Research In Bill 
A proposal to require Pennsylvania’s four state-related universities to promise they are not conducting research or experiments with fetal tissue from elective abortions was added to a state budget bill by House Republicans on Monday. The chamber voted 108-92, with three Republicans crossing party lines, for the amendment to legislation that will send more than $597 million combined next year to Penn State, Lincoln, Temple and Pitt. (Scolforo, 6/27)