Abortionist Dr. Beverly Gray and Planned Parenthood South Atlantic have requested a preliminary injunction against portions of North Carolina’s new pro-life law, which took effect on July 1. The law protects preborn children from abortion after 12 weeks of pregnancy but allows certain exceptions throughout pregnancy.
According to The Carolina Journal, lawmakers filed a document Monday opposing an injunction, saying that opponents of the state’s new pro-life law are trying to “circumvent” the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization overturning Roe v. Wade.
District Judge Catherine Eagles had previously issued an order temporarily blocking one portion of the law, labeled the “IUP Documentation Requirement” in court paperwork on June 30. This portion of the law requires doctors to document a pregnancy as being in the uterus prior to administering the abortion pill. This is in order to protect women who may be experiencing an ectopic pregnancy, which puts their lives at risk and may increase their risk of death if they take the abortion pill.
Planned Parenthood is seeking an injunction against that requirement and it is also seeking an injunction against the “Hospitalization Requirement,” a section of the law requiring that abortions committed after the first trimester take place in a hospital rather than an abortion facility.
In their latest filing, lawmakers wrote, “The Supreme Court held in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization that ‘[i]t is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives’. Ignoring that instruction, Plaintiffs are abortion providers who disagree with the policy choices behind North Carolina’s new abortion laws and seek to constitutionalize their preferences for what North Carolina’s laws should be.”
Lawmakers defended the requirement for doctors administering abortion drugs, stating, “As the leading cause of maternal mortality in the first trimester, ectopic pregnancies must be identified and treated before they rupture. The North Carolina General Assembly addressed this danger by requiring doctors to document an intrauterine pregnancy (IUP) prior to giving women drugs that can mask the symptoms of a life-threatening rupture. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has also addressed this risk by including a warning on mifepristone’s label that a prescriber must ‘exclude [an ectopic pregnancy] before treatment.’ Codifying FDA’s warning into law is rational.”
The brief also defended the new law’s hospitalization requirement for abortions that take place after the first trimester, saying, “The General Assembly also sought to provide safe conditions for women who seek abortions beyond the first trimester. As Plaintiffs have conceded, women who have post-12-week surgical abortions may experience life-threatening complications that require hospitalization. What’s more, Planned Parenthood South Atlantic (PPSAT) admits that it has transferred women from its facilities to hospitals due to complications from post-12-week surgical abortions that it could not treat at its facilities.”
“Simply put, the North Carolina legislature had rational reasons to require IUP documentation prior to a chemical abortion and hospitalization for post-12-week surgical abortions. The Constitution affords the North Carolina General Assembly — not Plaintiffs — that choice,” lawmakers argued.
Yet, in their own document, Planned Parenthood and Gray claimed, “[T]he Hospitalization and IUP Documentation Requirements are not rationally related to patients’ health, and the IUP Documentation Requirement fails to give adequate notice.”
District Judge Eagles will hold a hearing on September 25.
