LOUISIANA, USA — Abortions can resume in Louisiana, at least for now. On Monday, a judge issued a temporary restraining order which blocks Louisiana from enforcing its abortion ban.
Louisiana has three abortion clinics across the state, one in Shreveport, Baton Rouge and New Orleans. All three stopped performing abortions after Roe v. Wade was overturned Friday.
That's because of Louisiana's trigger law which banned abortions automatically once that ruling came down. To be clear, Louisiana's trigger law has been in place since 2006, but it was expanded last week, to allow exceptions for medical futility and for ectopic pregnancies. It also set harsher punishments for providers performing abortions.
On Monday though, abortion rights advocates fought back, filing a lawsuit arguing the state's trigger law is vague and unclear. It states that state and local officials gave conflicting statements about which trigger laws are in effect and what procedures, if any, are prohibited after the Supreme Court's ruling.
Soon after that lawsuit was filed, Orleans Parish Civil District Court Judge, Robin Giarrusso, blocked enforcement of the state's trigger ban. The Center for Reproductive Rights says abortions are allowed (at least for now).
Stephen Griffin, a professor of Constitutional Law at Tulane says it'll be interesting to see how this plays out.
"I haven't read the complaint, I can't fully assess their argument, but it just sounds a little off to me because I have read the law and it seems pretty clear about what imposes criminal liability, which is performing abortion, so I don't see anything vague about it and that's what makes me think this will be reversed by an appeals court," he said.
We reached out to Attorney General, Jeff Landry's office for comment. We did not hear by air time, but Landry did post on Twitter a series of tweets including: "We are fully prepared to defend these laws in our state courts, just as we have in our federal courts."
The matter will head to court July 8th.