A judge in Louisiana blocked the state from enforcing a near-total ban on abortions for the second time Tuesday, temporarily allowing the procedure amid a legal back-and-forth after the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade.
Judge Donald Johnson issued a temporary restraining order blocking the state’s abortion bans while a high-profile legal challenge moves forward in the capital, Baton Rouge. Another judge had previously issued a temporary restraining order to stop the state’s three abortion bans from taking effect last month, but yet another judge said last week that the court didn’t have the authority to do so, immediately outlawing abortions once again.
Johnson’s latest ruling will effectively allow abortion services in the state to resume until at least July 18, when he holds a hearing on the matter.
The legal maneuvering has forced Louisianans and abortion providers to scramble as they figure out how to operate in the state’s post-Roe system. The New York Times noted that one of the state’s few remaining abortion clinics, in Shreveport, said it would resume services for at least the next few days, calling the conflicting rulings “insane” and “stressful.”
Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry lambasted the judge’s ruling, saying the people “have spoken both directly at the ballot box and through their elected legislature again and again and again.”
“To have the judiciary create a legal circus is disappointing and what discredits the institutions we rely upon for a stable society,” Landry wrote on Twitter. “The rule of law must be followed, and I will not rest until it is. Unfortunately, we will have to wait a little bit longer for that to happen.”
“Any society that places themselves before their children (the future) does not last,” he concluded.
Abortion rights groups hailed the ruling, saying it was an “incredible relief for people who need abortion care right now in Louisiana.”
“Abortion care in the state can resume today, and further irreparable harm has been avoided,” Jenny Ma, a senior staff attorney at the Center for Reproductive Rights, said in a statement. “Our work continues and we now look ahead to our hearing on Monday, where we will ask the judge to block the bans more…
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