Louisiana may enforce a near-total ban on abortions after a state judge refused to extend an injunction, allowing the state’s so-called abortion trigger law to go into effect on July 8.
The ruling came the same day as President Joe Biden signed an executive order designed to protect access to abortion-inducing pills and emergency contraception. It also came amid a flurry of litigation nationwide two weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court voted to overturn Roe v. Wade, the seminal 1973 precedent that overturned state laws and legalized abortion in the United States.
A trigger law is a law that takes effect when a specific event occurs. In this case, Louisiana’s trigger law, enacted in 2006, provides it becomes effective if Roe v. Wade is struck down. The law, one of many abortion restrictions passed in the state in the last few years, forbids abortions except when the pregnant woman’s life is in danger. Violations of the law count as felonies and can be punished with 10 years in prison and a $100,000 fine….