CV NEWS FEED // A U.S. District Court judge on Monday struck down parts of North Carolina’s pro-life law related to chemical abortions, significantly expanding the extent to which abortion-inducing drugs can be prescribed in the state.
Federal Judge Catherine Eagles ruled that any “health care provider,” including non-doctors, can now prescribe abortion pills to women.
NC Newsline reported that due to the ruling women are now allowed to take the abortion-inducing drug mifepristone “at home” and “they no longer have to make three in-person visits to a doctor” before self-administering the drug.
The Associated Press (AP) noted Eagles held that some North Carolina restrictions on abortion drugs were “unlawfully in conflict with the authority of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).”
However, the AP also noted that Eagles “allowed other state [pro-life] laws to remain in effect, granting only a partial victory to” the pro-abortion doctor who stood as the plaintiff in the case.
Former President Barack Obama appointed Eagles to the bench in 2010.
Per The Hill,
The restrictions Eagles upheld include requiring an in-person consultation before receiving a prescription and an ultrasound. She said that the FDA had not reviewed and rejected those requirements.
The Hill added that Democratic North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein “chose not to put up a defense in the suit, contending that the restrictions were already preempted by the FDA.”
Stein is the Democratic nominee for November’s hotly contested North Carolina Gubernatorial Election. He is a staunch supporter of abortion and is endorsed by several pro-abortion activist groups.
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Following the ruling, Stein released a statement slamming North Carolina’s now-weakened pro-life law. “Republican lawmakers enacted SB20 to control women,” he wrote.
“Their sloppy, chaotic law violated women’s constitutional rights and made it harder to get a safe, effective medication abortion,” continued the Democratic nominee for governor:
I fought back against the unconstitutional parts of the law that made it harder for women – especially in rural parts of the state – to get the health care they need. I’m proud to defend women’s reproductive freedoms and pleased that this ruling helps women regain some control over their personal health care decisions. Politicians need to stay out of the exam room and leave these decisions to a woman and her medical provider.
The leader of the local Planned Parenthood division praised Eagles’ ruling the day after it was announced.
Planned Parenthood South Atlantic President and CEO Jenny Black stated Tuesday:
Yesterday’s ruling from the court is a tremendous victory for thousands of patients statewide, particularly in rural areas, who have been deprived of full access to medication abortion because of the state legislature’s oppressive tactics and maniacal focus on restricting abortion.
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