Ongoing Legal Battles Over Abortion Access in the United States

The American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Ohio, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, the law firm WilmerHale, and Fanon Rucker of the Cochran Law Firm, on behalf of Planned Parenthood Southwest Ohio Region, Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio, Preterm-Cleveland, Women’s Med Group Professional Corporation, Dr. Sharon Liner, and Julia Quinn, MSN, BSN, amended a complaint in an existing lawsuit against a ban on telehealth medication abortion services to bring new claims under the Ohio Reproductive Freedom Amendment, including additional challenges to other laws in Ohio that restrict access to medication abortion in the state. This case is titled Planned Parenthood Southwest Ohio Region et al., v. Ohio Department of Health, et al. and its status is ongoing.

Challenges to Federal Statutes and State Bans

Idaho and Moyle, et al. v. United States was appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court by Idaho politicians seeking to disregard a federal statute — the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) — and put doctors in jail for providing pregnant patients necessary emergency medical care. The Supreme Court heard oral arguments on this case on April 24, 2024. The Court’s ultimate decision will impact access to this essential care across the country. The status of this case is ongoing.

The American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Texas, and coalition partners filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of abortion providers and funds on July 13, 2021, challenging S.B. 8, a Texas law allowing private citizens to enforce a ban on abortion as early as six weeks in pregnancy—before many know they are pregnant. The ACLU’s challenge made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court three times in as many months. After hearing oral arguments in the case, the Court issued a decision on December 10, 2021, that ended the most promising pathways to blocking the ban. The Supreme Court’s decision makes it more difficult to obtain adequate relief from the courts and gives states the green light to ban abortion using bounty-hunting schemes. Texas’ abortion ban will remain in effect until relief can be secured from a court. This case is Whole Woman's Health v. Jackson, and its status is closed (Judgment).

Key Supreme Court Decisions and Their Impact

Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization concerns the constitutionality of a Mississippi law prohibiting abortions after the fifteenth week of pregnancy. The state used the case as a vehicle to ask the Supreme Court to take away the federal constitutional right to abortion it first recognized 50 years before in Roe v. Wade. On June 24, 2022, the Supreme Court of the United States accepted the state’s invitation and overturned Roe, eliminating the federal constitutional right to abortion. This case is closed (Judgment).

In 2018, the American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Kentucky filed a suit on behalf of Kentucky abortion providers and their patients challenging a state law banning physicians from providing a safe and medically proven abortion method called dilation and evacuation, or “D&E.” If it were to take effect, this law would prevent many patients from being able to obtain an abortion altogether. After two courts held that the law is unconstitutional, the Supreme Court ruled in March 2022 that Kentucky Attorney General Cameron can continue his pursuit to push abortion out of reach by intervening in the underlying challenge to an abortion ban, which is proceeding in a lower court. This case is Cameron v. EMW Women’s Surgical Center, and its status is closed (Judgment).

Challenges to Medication Abortion Access

The American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Hawaii, and Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholar LLP, are challenging a U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) restriction that severely limits where and how patients can access mifepristone, a safe and effective medication used for abortion and miscarriage care. This case is ACLU v. U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and its status is ongoing.

State-level Constitutional Challenges

A Kentucky woman who was pregnant and seeking an abortion filed a lawsuit in Jefferson County Circuit Court seeking to restore access to abortion in the Commonwealth by challenging two abortion bans under the state constitutional rights to privacy and self-determination. The case details the severe harms that Kentuckians seeking abortion, like Plaintiff Mary Poe, suffer because the government denies them access to the care they need. The lawsuit also requests the court certify a class of all pregnant individuals who seek access to abortion in the Commonwealth but cannot obtain that care because of Kentucky’s abortion bans. This case is Mary Poe v. Russell Coleman, et al., and its status is closed (Voluntarily Dismissed).

Overview of Key Abortion-Related Lawsuits