Attorney General Steve Marshall issued a statement following the U.S. Supreme Court opinion overturning Roe v. Wade.
“Today is a truly historic day. The United States Supreme Court has, at long last, finally overturned its fatally flawed decision in Roe v. Wade. The issue of abortion now returns to the States—and the State of Alabama has unequivocally elected to be a protector of unborn life,” Marshall stated.
In 2019, Alabama passed the Alabama Human Life Protection Act that would make performing an abortion a felony in almost all cases. However, an injunction by U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson temporarily stopped the ban from taking effect. The Supreme Court ruling from the 1973 ruling of Roe v. Wade made the law unenforceable. Now that Roe v. Wade has been overturned, states with these types of laws can now enforce them.
Marshall continued, “Because neither the United States Constitution nor the Alabama Constitution provides a right to abortion, Alabama laws that prohibit abortion and that have not been enjoined by a court are in full effect. For those laws that have been halted by courts, the State will immediately file motions to dissolve those injunctions. Any abortionist or abortion clinic operating in the State of Alabama in violation of Alabama law should immediately cease and desist operations.
The injunction the court put on the Alabama Human Life Protection Act was lifted on the same day Roe v. Wade was reversed. Marshall released a statement on that ruling, saying, “Alabama’s law making elective abortions a felony is now enforceable. Anyone who takes an unborn life in violation of the law will be prosecuted, with penalties ranging from 10 to 99 years for abortion providers.”
