A North Carolina law banning abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy has been reinstated by a judge serving the District Court. The honorable judge lifted an injunction that he had ordered after the Supreme Court’s decision to reverse Roe v. Wade verdict.
Earlier in 2019, Judge Osteen had declared the North Carolina Law banning abortion to be unconstitutional based on precedents by the Supreme Court. This was in turn upheld in 2021 by another court.
Judge Osteen stated that under the 2022 case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization the constitutionality of pre-availability of abortion was no longer available.
Osteen reinstated the decision stating that leaving the injunction as it is would cause people to be misled. That would be quite contrary to the effect of the Dobbs verdict.
The Governor of North Carolina, Mr. Roy Cooper held that the court reinstating the long-banned law will lead to it hampering much-needed healthcare services in “extraordinary circumstances”.
Few are of the opinion that Abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy is very rare. It is often resorted to in case of tricky pregnancies where the mother’s life could be put at risk.
It has also been argued that with the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, the grounds for an injunction seems to be absent. An anti-abortion advocate held that the national sentiment on abortion was clear with the verdicts reached by people-elected representatives.
There has, however, been some speculation about Republican Legislative members pressurizing into lifting the injunction.
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