USA – State Actions Undermining Abortion Rights in 2020

By Nora Ellmann 
August 27, 2020

So far in 2020, there have been a number of important wins for abortion rights in the courts. In the U.S. Supreme Court, Louisiana’s unconstitutional admitting privileges law was struck down in June Medical Services v. Russo.1 In the lower courts, a federal district court in Maryland ruled that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration must suspend enforcement of a medically unnecessary restriction on access to medication abortion until 30 days after the end of the COVID-19 public health emergency.2 Also in Maryland, a district court vacated and enjoined a Trump administration rule that would have required separate insurance payments for abortion care and all other health care for people insured by certain plans under the Affordable Care Act.3 And a district court in Georgia struck down the state’s six-week abortion ban, which would have banned abortion at a point before most people even know they are pregnant.4

Continued: https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/women/reports/2020/08/27/489786/state-actions-undermining-abortion-rights-2020/


Stuart Kyle Duncan: the Trump-appointed judge working to ban Louisiana abortions

Stuart Kyle Duncan: the Trump-appointed judge working to ban Louisiana abortions
The ultra-conservative fifth circuit court judge repeatedly upheld the ban in Texas and could result in clinic closures across Louisiana

Rosemary Westwood in New Orleans
Sun 14 Jun 2020

A landmark US Supreme Court ruling expected before the end of June could shutter most of Louisiana’s abortion clinics and precipitate clinic closures in more than a dozen other states.

The case, June Medical Services v Russo, is one of the most high-profile supreme court cases of the year, after Donald Trump appointed two justices who tipped the balance of the court to a conservative majority. And it might never have reached the supreme court without the aid of another Trump-appointed judge, Stuart Kyle Duncan.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/law/2020/jun/14/stuart-kyle-duncan-the-trump-appointed-judge-working-to-ban-louisiana-abortions