A U.S. District judge ruled late Monday night that abortions will be allowed to continue during the State Health Order that banned all unnecessary medical procedures.
The State Health Order issued on March 27 that shut down several non-essential businesses will stay in place. The judge’s ruling effectively classifies abortion as one of the essential procedures permitted to continue during the coronavirus pandemic.
Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall had argued that the order meant all abortion clinics should shut down. He believed that COVID-19 could spread in crowded waiting rooms and that the clinics would be taking up the time and equipment of medical professionals that were needed elsewhere.
Marshall’s interpretation of the order held for one day as all abortions scheduled for Monday in Alabama were canceled.
The ACLU had argued in their emergency action that abortion was “essential, time-sensitive health care.”
Judge Myron Thompson said in his decision that the delay in providing an abortion caused by the temporary shut-down of the abortion clinics “may pose an undue burden that is not justified by the State’s purported rationales.”
Similar rulings to the one in Alabama were put into place in Texas and Ohio Tuesday night. Both of those states had shuttered abortion clinics with similar methods to the one attempted in Alabama.
The legal mechanism used by Thompson is a temporary restraining order that will stay in effect until April 13. Further legal proceedings are expected in the case as soon as this week.
Henry Thornton is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News. You can contact him by email: [email protected] or on Twitter @HenryThornton95.
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