{"id":199146,"date":"2019-03-27T12:32:32","date_gmt":"2019-03-27T17:32:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=199146"},"modified":"2019-03-27T12:33:55","modified_gmt":"2019-03-27T17:33:55","slug":"judge-nixes-north-carolina-20-week-abortion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/judge-nixes-north-carolina-20-week-abortion\/","title":{"rendered":"Federal judge nixes North Carolina’s decades-old 20-week abortion ban"},"content":{"rendered":"
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District Judge William Osteen has overturned North Carolina’s 20-week abortion ban<\/a>, following 2016 lawsuits filed by the ACLU, Planned Parenthood, and the Center for Reproductive Rights. Calling the law “unconstitutional,” Osteen referred back to Supreme Court precedents set by prior laws, such as Roe v. Wade<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The original law had been in place since 1973, banning abortion after 20 weeks except when necessary to save the life of the mother. In 2015, the medical exceptions were narrowed and made stricter. The pro-abortion groups sued, even though in the 40 years that the law has been on the books, not a single case has ever been prosecuted.<\/p>\n

Still, Osteen ruled that any “week- or event-specific” abortion ban is unconstitutional, and that \u201ca state is never allowed to prohibit any swath of pre-viability abortions outright, no matter how strenuously it may believe that such a ban is in the best interests of its citizens or how minimal it may find the burden to women seeking an abortion.\u201d While some babies have survived being born as early as 21 weeks, viability is generally defined by doctors to be at approximately 24 weeks, which bolstered Osteen’s decision.<\/p>\n