Former Arkansas abortion center ordered to pay legal fees for review

Nation’s Supreme Court orders law’s challenger to cover filing expenses

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Court, law, scales of justice, Gavel, crime, judge, judgement, legal,

The U.S. Supreme Court issued a judgement vacating a lower court order that blocked Arkansas' ban on abortions performed solely on the basis of a Down syndrome diagnosis, and on Monday ordered Little Rock Family Planning Services to pay the state for filing costs of the review.

Little Rock Family Planning Services was ordered to pay $300 to the state under the petition for writ of certiorari, according to court documents.

Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge released a statement Tuesday after court's decision in Rutledge v. Little Rock Family Planning Services, saying the her office jumped into action to strike all remaining abortion lawsuits after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the landmark 1973 ruling in Roe v. Wade that legalized abortion across the country.

"For the last two years, Arkansas has been the most pro life state in the union because of the work of the dedicated staff at the Attorney General's Office," Rutledge said in the release. "I have always advocated for the lives of unborn children because no baby should ever face the unimaginable and horrifying fate of abortion."

Rutledge implemented a "trigger law" in June following the Roe v. Wade decision that banned abortions in Arkansas, except to save the life of the mother in a medical emergency.

Act 180 of 2019 was crafted to take effect when the state attorney general certified that Roe had been overturned, returning authority to states to prohibit abortion.

The Little Rock Family Planning Services case against the state has been ongoing for more than two years after the state passed laws during the 2019 legislative session targeting abortion in the state.

Act 619 of 2019 prohibits a provider from intentionally performing an abortion with knowledge that the pregnant woman seeks the abortion solely on the basis of a test indicating Down syndrome or any other reason to believe that the fetus has Down syndrome, with exceptions if the abortion is necessary to save the woman's life or to preserve her health or if the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest.

The 8th Circuit Court of Appeals in 2021 upheld a preliminary injunction preventing two Arkansas laws restricting abortion from going into effect.

In its ruling, the 8th Circuit panel leaned heavily upon the viability and undue burden arguments brought before the U.S. Supreme Court in the 1992 Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania vs. Casey decision.

The injunction on Act 619 was upheld on the basis that both statutes would create a legal barrier to abortion prior to the viability of the fetus, which is medically accepted to be 24 weeks.


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