Last Friday US District Judge Myron Thompson ordered Alabama to pay $675,964 to lawyers as plaintiffs’ legal fees in the lawsuit challenging the state’s attempt to ban one of the most common abortion procedures carried out in the second trimester.
Judge Thompson handed down the order after declaring the 2016 law unconstitutional. The Alabama law sought to ban ‘dilation and evacuation’ abortion procedures.
The American Civil Liberties Union, along with two Alabama abortion clinics, filed the lawsuit to challenge the ban and another law that was against abortion clinics near schools.
Judge Thompson struck down the law stating that it would amount to a state-wide ban on abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. Alabama State’s appeal was refused to be heard by the US Supreme Court in June.
The executive director of the ACLU Alabama, Randall Marshall, wrote in an email that there are financial consequences to continuous unconstitutional abortion restrictions set in place by the State Legislature.
