Civil liberties group challenges Alabama
abortion restrictions
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[June 03, 2016]
By Karen Brooks
(Reuters) - The American Civil Liberties
Union challenged in federal court in Alabama on Thursday new state
abortion restrictions that limit the proximity of clinics to public
schools and ban a procedure used to terminate pregnancies in the second
trimester.
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The measures could force the closure of two clinics in Huntsville
and Tuscaloosa, which perform more than half the abortions in the
state, according to the American Civil Liberties Union of Alabama.
The restrictions come amid a wave of laws being adopted by states as
conservatives seek to chip away at the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark
1973 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion.
"It's long past time for our elected officials to stop interfering
with a woman's personal decisions and to start dealing with the very
real problems in our state," Susan Watson, executive director of the
ACLU of Alabama, said in a statement.
Under the restrictions, Alabama could be left with three abortion
clinics in a state where nearly one million women are of
reproductive age, Watson said.
The American Civil Liberties Union filed its challenge in U.S.
District Court for the Middle District of Alabama as a supplemental
complaint to a 2015 lawsuit over another state abortion restriction.
The organization is also challenging a new regulation that it said
requires doctors to give every patient a copy of her medical record
after the procedure. The ACLU said a paper record would make it
harder for a woman to keep private that she had an abortion or
pregnancy.
A spokesperson for Alabama Republican Governor Robert Bentley did
not immediately return calls seeking comment on Thursday.
Bentley, who was not named in the complaint, last month signed into
law the measures barring clinics within 2,000 feet of public schools
with kindergarten to grade 8 and restricting the second-trimester
procedure, both due to take effect on Aug. 1.
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Alabama was the fifth state to restrict an abortion method commonly
performed in the second trimester of a pregnancy, known as dilation
and evacuation or D&E.
No other states have enacted limits on the proximity of abortion
clinics to public schools.
Also on Thursday, Planned Parenthood filed a separate lawsuit
challenging a new Florida law cutting off state funding for
preventive health services to clinics that provide abortions
services.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District
of Florida, also seeks to block new inspection requirements for
state abortion clinics that it said impose unnecessary regulation.
(Reporting by Karen Brooks in Fort Worth, Texas; Editing by Toni
Reinhold)
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