This law prohibited the dilation and evacuation method of abortion. This method involves an abortionist reaching through a mother's cervix with metal instruments to tear the child apart piece by piece. Dismembering the child this way causes the child to bleed to death.
The law's enforcement was blocked before it could take effect in 2019, but Judge Sarah Evans Barker lifted the injunction after the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in the summer of 2022. Court proceedings continued, but the law became enforceable during this time.
Barker's ruling last month rejects the challenge by abortionist Caitlin Bernard. Her argument was based on the "undue burden" standard often used when Roe v. Wade was a standing precedent. Barker granted Bernard 30 days to file an amended complaint under a new legal theory.
Bloomberg Law wrote that this new legal theory claims that "the dilation and evacuation abortion ban violates a person’s 14th Amendment substantive due process right to bodily integrity, at least as it applies to nonelective abortions."
