RALEIGH — Abortion providers in North Carolina filed a federal lawsuit Friday that challenges several provisions of a state law banning most abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy in the dwindling days before the new restrictions take effect.
Planned Parenthood South Atlantic and Dr. Beverly Gray, a Duke University OB-GYN, are asking a federal judge to block numerous provisions they argue are unclear and unconstitutional, or to place an injunction on the law to prevent it from being enforced.
Though the law may be commonly referred to as a 12-week abortion ban, the plaintiffs argue that it actually includes additional restrictions that many patients are not aware of — hurdles that will “impede health care professionals from providing quality care,” according to the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court.
“Many of these provisions are going to constrain an already very constrained abortion ecosystem in this state,” Planned Parenthood South Atlantic CEO Jenny Black told The Associated Press on Friday. “And so we really thought it was important that we challenged the elements of the law that do that.”
North Carolina has been one of the few remaining Southern states with relatively easy access to abortions in the wake of last year’s U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade. With the new restrictions set to take effect July 1, many out-of-state patients who had once viewed North Carolina as a refuge will soon have to travel even further up the coast to access elective abortions later in pregnancy.
The lawsuit comes one month after the Republican supermajority in the state’s General Assembly approved the measure through both chambers and overrode a veto from Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper, who called it “an egregious, unacceptable attack on the women of our state.”
Among the named defendants are North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein, state Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kody Kinsley and the district attorneys who represent every county in the state where Gray and Planned Parenthood provide abortions.
Kinsley’s office and Stein’s office said they are reviewing the lawsuit. Stein, a Democratic candidate for governor in 2024, is an outspoken pro-abortion supporter but is named in the lawsuit because it’s his job as attorney general to defend state laws in court.
Spokespeople for the Republican legislative leaders, Senate leader Phil Berger and House Speaker Tim Moore, did not immediately respond Friday to phone messages seeking comment.
Republicans pitched the 47-page measure as a middle-ground change to an existing state law banning nearly all abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy, without exceptions for rape or incest. The new law adds exceptions, extending the limit through 20 weeks for rape and incest and through 24 weeks for “life-limiting” fetal anomalies, including certain physical or genetic disorders that can be diagnosed prenatally.
The lawsuit challenges a requirement that sexual assault survivors obtain abortions at a hospital after 12 weeks of pregnancy.
Gray, an OB-GYN, told the AP there is no procedural or medical difference between the unrestricted care she is able to provide miscarriage patients and the newly restricted care she provides abortion patients.
Similarly, Planned Parenthood clinics will be able to continue treating miscarriage patients after 12 weeks in cases where the fetus has already died but will be prohibited from providing identical care to rape and incest survivors in the context of an abortion.
“It’s the same care, and there’s zero regulations about caring for patients with miscarriages,” Gray said. “This is not about safety. This is about limiting access to abortion.”