Supreme Court will not hear challenge to decision overturning Alabama law banning the dismemberment of living unborn children

The Supreme Court denied Alabama’s petition to review a decision that overturned the state’s ban on the dismemberment of living unborn babies.

The 2016 law never went into effect. In July 2016, an enthusiastically pro-abortion trial judge issued a temporary restraining order against Alabama’s Unborn Child Protection from Dismemberment Abortion Act (SB 363) before ruling it unconstitutional in 2017.

Last August, a sympathetic appeals court panel reluctantly upheld U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson’s decision.

While Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas concurred with the decision in Harris v. West Alabama Women’s Center not to hear the appeal, he pointedly observed, “The notion that anything in the Constitution prevents States from passing laws prohibiting the dismembering of a living child is implausible. But under the ‘undue burden’ standard adopted by this court, a restriction on abortion — even one limited to prohibiting gruesome methods — is unconstitutional if ‘the purpose or effect of the provision is to place a substantial obstacle in the path of a woman seeking an abortion before the fetus attains viability.’ ”  Click here for more.