Multistate lawsuit asks Supreme Court to hear challenge to abortion ‘shield laws’

WASHINGTON (OSV News) — The attorneys general of Louisiana, Alabama and Arkansas Sept. 30 announced a lawsuit challenging the abortion “shield laws” of New York, California and Massachusetts.

The Republican-led states asked the Supreme Court to take up their challenge to the so-called “shield laws” passed by the Democratic-led states in an effort to prevent the prosecution of abortion providers within those states by states with bans or other restrictions on abortion.

The attorneys general behind the lawsuit argued that the shield laws allow abortion providers to violate their own states’ abortion restrictions by protecting those who mail abortion-inducing drugs from states that permit them to states that restrict them.

Such laws also “commonly allow anonymous or nearly anonymous mailing of abortion drugs,” the suit said.

“Louisiana has made its position on abortion clear through the bipartisan will of the people’s representatives in its Legislature,” Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill said in a statement. “Louisiana chooses life. We will not allow activist states, activist providers, or distributors profiting from killing babies to threaten Louisiana’s sovereignty, violate Louisiana law, or endanger Louisiana women and babies.”

In a statement in response to the announcement of the lawsuit, New York Attorney General Letitia James said, “Louisiana, Alabama, and Arkansas are asking the Supreme Court to let them impose their abortion bans on New York and punish our doctors for providing legal health care.”

“New York has always been a safe haven for reproductive freedom,” James said. “It was true before Roe, it has been true since Dobbs, and it will remain true long after this lawsuit inevitably fails. I will fight with everything in my power to defend our shield law and protect every provider and patient who depends on it.”

Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, celebrated the lawsuit in a statement, arguing, “The constitutional issue is clear: blue states are playing politics to obstruct justice.”

The lawsuit comes as some pro-life leaders have raised concerns that the Trump administration has not rolled back a Biden administration policy permitting the shipment of mifepristone by mail.

The Trump administration has sought to pause other state lawsuits seeking to roll back the eased restrictions on mifepristone, a drug commonly used for first trimester abortion, but which is also used in some miscarriage care protocols. Thus far the administration has left that regulation in effect while seeking to block those challenges, pending a promised Food and Drug Administration safety review, prompting frustration from pro-life advocates.

“We continue to encourage U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche and the Department of Justice to swiftly settle the case with Louisiana — saving 15,000 or more lives each month by getting these deadly drugs out of the mail immediately,” Dannenfelser said. “At a minimum, Americans of every political persuasion strongly favor in-person dispensing.”

The Catholic Church teaches that all human life is sacred from conception to natural death, and therefore opposes direct abortion.

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