United States District Judge Myron Thompson on Monday ruled that an Alabama law passed in 2013 requiring abortion doctors to have hospital admitting privileges is unconstitutional.
In Thompson’s lengthy opinion, he wrote that “The evidence compellingly demonstrates that the requirement would have the striking result of closing three of Alabama’s five abortion clinics, clinics which perform only early abortions, long before viability.”
The potential for closing the abortion clinics was important to Thompson as he made his decision because he said that abortion rights cannot be exercised without a provider, similar to how Second Amendment rights cannot be exercised without a place to buy weapons and ammunition.
Thompson’s ruling comes on the heels of a nearly identical court decision in neighboring Mississippi, where a federal appeals court ruled last week that a similar law was unconstitutional. If it had been allowed to go into effect, it likely would have shut down Mississippi’s last remaining abortion clinic.
Planned Parenthood Southeast and Reproductive Health Services were the plaintiffs in the Alabama case and, along with the Alabama chapter of the ACLU, applauded Judge Thompson’s decision.
“These admitting privileges were not designed to make women safer,” said Susan Watson, who heads the ACLU of Alabama. “Major medical organizations, including the American Medical Association and the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, oppose them. We are proud to know that Alabama’s women will continue have access to safe and legal abortions.”
Longtime watchers of Thompson’s court were not surprised by the decision. One of the country’s longest-serving liberal judges, Thompson was nominated by President Jimmy Carter to his current seat on the United States District Court for the Middle District of Alabama and confirmed by the Senate just over a month before Ronald Reagan was elected in 1980.
Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange says that he will appeal the decision. The case is likely to be picked up by the Supreme Court.
We will update this story as more Alabama leaders weigh in.
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