RALEIGH, N.C. — A federal judge ruled Friday that North Carolina’s 12-week abortion ban can go into effect beginning Saturday, but temporarily blocked one part of the law.
The ruling from U.S. District Judge Catherine Eagles said that many of the points of confusion and contradiction that had been raised by Planned Parenthood in its lawsuit against the abortion law had been clarified by last-minute revisions GOP lawmakers proposed in recent days, which were signed into law by Gov. Roy Cooper on Thursday.
Eagles sided with Planned Parenthood on one provision in the sweeping law that requires physicians who are prescribing medication abortions to document the existence of a pregnancy. The judge said a revised version of that provision is still likely “unconstitutionally vague” because of cases in which the pregnancy is at an early stage, and can’t be detected. That part of the law was blocked from being enforced for at least the next two weeks.
