Abortion ruling likely keeps North Carolina a destination

(The Center Square) – North Carolina is expected to remain a destination for abortions in the South following two decisions on Friday in a federal case litigating new state law.

Judge Catherine Eagles decided on a permanent block for part of the legislation that says doctors must document the location of a pregnancy before prescribing abortion pills. Reasonable enforcement would be challenging, she said. Eagles issued the injunction for it last year.

In another section of the law, Eagles ruled abortions after 12 weeks or pregnancy must be performed in hospitals. That’s a change from her injunction.

Eagles is the chief judge at the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina. Her rulings are on what is known as the Care for Women, Children, and Families Act , or Senate Bill 20.

Overall, most of the law enacted Dec. 1 from the first year of this legislative session in the wake of Roe v. Wade being reversed in June 2022 is in place. Included are no abortions after 12 weeks, down from 20, except in cases of rape, incest, or “life-limiting anomalies."

Three southern states – South Carolina, Georgia and Florida – restrict abortions at six weeks post-fertilization. It is at conception in Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Indiana and West Virginia. Virginia is the third trimester since last menstrual period.

Farther up the Atlantic Seaboard and west of the Mississippi River, laws against abortion are less restrictive.

Plaintiffs are Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, and others including Dr. Beverly Gray of Duke Health. Josh Stein in his role as state attorney general, Kody Kinsley as secretary of the state Department of Health and Human Services, and state Sen. Phil Berger as president pro tempore of the upper chamber, and others, are the defendants or what is known as intervenor defendants. Counsel for Republican leaders of the General Assembly have defended the law in the absence of Stein's willingness on behalf of his Department of Justice.