[20190906]LSB10346_审查最近颁布的州堕胎法和由此产生的诉讼.pdf

CRS Legal Sidebar Prepared for Members and Committees of Congress Legal SidebarLegal Sidebari i Reviewing Recently Enacted State Abortion Laws and Resulting Litigation September 6, 2019 Since the start of 2019, at least 11 states have enacted new laws regulating abortions based on a fetuss gestational age, the detection of a fetal heartbeat, or specified fetal characteristics, such as a diagnosis of Down syndrome. Some of these states have also imposed restrictions on the dilation and evacuation abortion method, the most common surgical abortion method performed during the second trimester of pregnancy. Notably, these 11 states are seeking to curtail the availability of abortion notwithstanding case law from various federal appellate courts that invalidated similar state laws in the past. This flurry of legislative activity may be motivated in part to have the Supreme Court reconsider its past abortion decisions. As the states governor recently remarked upon signing the Alabama Human Life Protection Act, “it is time, once again, for the U.S. Supreme Court to revisit this important matter.” While it remains to be seen whether the Supreme Court will take up this invitation, this Side