Health and Fitness, Local

Attorney General Madigan Joins 15 Attorneys General to Defend Women’s Constitutionally Protected Reproductive Rights


Attorneys General Oppose Four Arkansas State Laws that Severely Curtail Access to Abortion Services

Women's reprodutive rights
(Source: SocialWorker.org)

Chicago —(ENEWSPF)—March 2, 2018

By: Rosemary Piser

Attorney General Madigan joined 15 other Attorneys General yesterday to defend women’s access to constitutionally protected reproductive rights. An amicus brief was filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, challenging four Arkansas state laws that severely curtail access to abortion in that state.

In the case Hopkins v. Jegley, a physician is challenging four Arkansas laws and the undue burdens they place on women’s constitutionally protected abortion rights. The district court has held that all four laws are unconstitutional and issued a preliminary injunction preventing them from taking effect. The State of Arkansas appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. The states’ amicus brief urges the court to affirm the district court’s decision.

These Arkansas laws being challenged include a statute which requires women to undergo risky and medically unnecessary procedures and criminalizes the safest and most common method of second-trimester abortion. The laws also create difficulties in accessing abortion, require physicians to report abortions had by girls between the ages of 14 and 16 to local police departments, and require a woman’s sexual partner or other family members be notified of and consent to fetal tissue disposal.

Attorney General Madigan said, “The laws in Arkansas are dangerous and invasive, and I will fight to ensure women continue to make their own decisions about their health care.”

Joining Madigan in filing the amicus brief were the Attorneys General of California, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Virginia and Washington.

A copy of the brief can be found here.

Source: www.illinoisattorneygeneral.gov


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