The Supreme Court said Friday it won’t review a lower court decision blocking an Alabama law that effectively banned abortions after 15 weeks.
The Alabama law — which prohibits a method of abortion that is typically the only method available for pregnancies after 15 weeks — was passed in 2016. But since then a wave of even more aggressive bans were passed by states who saw Justice Anthony Kennedy’s departure from the court in 2018 as an opportunity to roll back the right to the procedure.
So far, the Supreme Court has declined to jump into the most contentious abortion cases since Kennedy’s exit, but in a concurrence Friday Justice Clarence Thomas signaled his desire to overturn previous decisions protecting abortion rights.