Supreme Court ruling on abortion sets off new court fights in states

The fall of Roe v. Wade shifted the battleground over abortion to courthouses around the country Monday, as one side sought quickly to put statewide bans into effect and the other tried to stop or at least delay such measures. The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision Friday to end constitutional protection for abortion opened the gates for a wave of litigation from all sides.

Many of the court cases will focus on “trigger laws,” adopted in 13 states in anticipation of the ruling and designed to take effect swiftly. Lawsuits could also target old anti-abortion laws that were left on the books and went unenforced under Roe. Newer abortion restrictions that were put on hold pending the Supreme Court ruling have also started to come back into play.

In Louisiana, a judge in New Orleans temporarily blocked enforcement of the state’s trigger-law ban on abortion, after abortion rights activists argued that it is unclear. The ruling is in effect pending a July 8 hearing. At least one of the state’s three abortion clinics said it would resume performing procedures today.

Also Monday, abortion rights advocates asked a Florida judge to block a new law there that bans the procedure after 15 weeks with some exceptions and is set to take effect this week. And a hearing was scheduled for Monday in Utah, where Planned Parenthood challenged a trigger law there that contains narrow exceptions.

In striking down Roe, the Supreme Court left it to the states to decide whether to allow abortion. Abortion services have stopped in at least 11 states — either because of state laws or confusion over them.