{"id":204443,"date":"2019-06-15T11:22:38","date_gmt":"2019-06-15T16:22:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=204443"},"modified":"2019-06-16T04:44:58","modified_gmt":"2019-06-16T09:44:58","slug":"public-prosecutors-wont-enforce-abortion-bans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/public-prosecutors-wont-enforce-abortion-bans\/","title":{"rendered":"Public prosecutors sign letter saying they won’t enforce abortion bans"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A group of 42 public prosecutors has signed their names to a <\/span>letter<\/span><\/a> stating that they will not enforce some of the most recently-passed (or soon to be passed) pro-life laws — which thus far, penalize only those who commit illegal abortions, not the women who obtain them.\u00a0Only three of the signers hold office in Georgia and one in Alabama, whereas a majority of the signers come from abortion-friendly states such as New York, where abortion up until the moment of birth was recently enshrined in law.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWith thousands of laws on the books, elected prosecutors use their discretion every day in deciding how to wisely and justly allocate resources to promote enforcement of laws that will have the greatest effect on advancing public safety,\u201d said Satana Danberry, along with two other signers of the letter in an op-ed explaining the letter, published in the <\/span>Washington Post<\/span><\/a>. \u201cTo do so, they necessarily decline to prosecute certain laws \u2014 such as those that criminalize substance-use disorder or adultery \u2014 which do not serve the interests of justice.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The letter, from a group calling itself Fair and Just Prosecution, comes as several states enact laws protecting preborn children, including bans on abortions after a baby\u2019s heartbeat has been detected. Alabama, where the law would allow abortion only if the mother’s life or health are at serious risk, as well as Georgia and Missouri, were specifically called out in the missive. The letter asserts that the abortion bans appear to be unconstitutional under Roe v. Wade<\/em>, although there has been no ruling yet on the constitutionality of many of these bans.<\/span><\/p>\n