SW News: In what is seen as a victory for pro-life activists, the Supreme Court of the US state of Louisiana has dismissed an appeal in the ongoing lawsuit regarding the ban on abortions, allowing the prohibition to remain in place. It was on Friday, August 12, that the appeal filed by the plaintiffs—three abortion clinics—was dismissed.

After the verdict was announced, state Attorney General Jeff Landry, who is also a defendant, said on Twitter that he was happy with the judgment and pledged to “continue fighting to end this legal circus”. After the US Supreme Court repealed Roe v Wade on June 24, Louisiana’s trigger law banning abortions without exceptions for rape or incest came into effect.

Since then, three abortion facilities resorted to rulings and gag orders to continue operations. They filed a lawsuit against the trigger law arguing that its provisions were contradictory and vague when reviewed in the light of the state’s constitution.

State Judge Donald Johnson came out with a preliminary ban on July 21 allowing the clinics to continue providing operations in spite of the ongoing lawsuit. But on July 29, the appeals court in the state issued a verdict favoring Landry and ordered the state judge to reinstate the enforcement of the ban on abortions. The attempts of the plaintiffs to appeal the First Circuit Court verdict to the state Supreme Court ended in a fiasco.

In Louisiana, the trigger law only allows abortion for what it terms are “medically futile” pregnancies when the fetus has fatal abnormalities. However, plaintiffs argue that the term “medically futile” is undefined and the health officials of the state have not provided a list of conditions that substantiate that terminology.

Since Roe v Wade, which legalized abortion across American states in 1973, was overturned by the Supreme Court, a host of Republican-controlled states enacted trigger laws banning abortions in different stages of pregnancy. However, abortion providers and pro-choice outfits have filed lawsuits to prevent the laws from coming into effect.