(CN) --- Alabama cannot enforce a set of amendments to a law allowing a minor to seek approval from a judge instead of her parents for an abortion, the Eleventh Circuit ruled Wednesday in yet another setback to the state’s long-litigated parental consent act.
“We see no problem that the new law helps to cure,” the three-judge panel wrote in the 60-page opinion upholding a lower court order that found the challenged provisions unconstitutional and unenforceable.
In 2014, Alabama’s Parental Consent Act went into effect, adding more roles to a judicial proceeding for a girl seeking to get an abortion without the consent of her parents. Critics of the law, including the state’s only abortion provider Reproductive Health Services who challenged the provisions in court, claimed it turned a bypass procedure --- usually a quick, private affair in the chambers of a judge --- into a de facto trial.
A federal judge struck down the law in July 2017, and the Alabama Court of Civil Appeals later reversed the judge’s decision to block a minor’s abortion, stating that the judge applied the law incorrectly.
U.S. Circuit Judges Charles Wilson, a Bill Clinton appointee, Adalberto Jordan, a Barack Obama appointee and Patrick Higginbotham, a Ronald Reagan appointee who usually presides at the Fifth Circuit, made up the 11th Circuit panel.
They concluded in Wednesday’s ruling that the challenged provisions are unconstitutional because they present substantial obstacles to a minor’s right to an abortion, while providing “incremental benefits at best.” There is no indication that the prior judicial-bypass procedures --- in place for over 20 years --- were deficient or led to uninformed bypass decisions, the appeals court found.
“Going to court can be intimidating for minors in any setting, but that is particularly true for minors who seek judicial authorization for an abortion, which requires placing in the government’s hands a decision that will change the course of one’s life forever,” the panel wrote.
The judges also found that the state failed to explain how the challenged provisions “offer pregnant minors any kind of guidance or assistance.” Attorneys for the state claimed that the law provided bypass courts with sufficient evidence and information to make informed and proper decisions.
The ruling noted that only 1.38% of minors received abortions through court orders in Alabama.
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