Attorney General Frosh Joins Multistate Brief Defending Women’s Reproductive Rights

BALTIMORE, MD (January 8, 2020) – Maryland Attorney General Brian E. Frosh joined a multistate coalition in filing an amicus brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit in support of the plaintiffs in Little Rock Family Planning Services v. Leslie Rutledge, a lawsuit that seeks to protect a woman’s right to safe and legal abortion care. The multistate coalition supports the last surgical abortion clinic in Arkansas in its challenge to four state laws that would restrict women’s access to safe and legal abortion by banning abortion after 18 weeks and otherwise restricting women’s access to reproductive care.

“The Arkansas laws put women’s health and safety at risk,” said Attorney General Frosh. “Chipping away at abortion services by placing burdensome restrictions on providers will not stop abortions from taking place; it will just make them more dangerous.”

In the brief, the coalition argues that the Arkansas laws violate women’s constitutional right to choose under Roe v. Wade. The coalition further argues that limiting or eliminating women’s access to safe and legal abortion leads to worse health and socioeconomic outcomes for women. These outcomes include forcing women to endure negative pregnancy side effects, the limitation of physical activity, restriction from full-time employment, and increased reliance on publicly funded safety-net programs. The brief describes the different ways that states promote women’s health without impeding women’s rights upheld by the constitution.

In 2019, the Arkansas state legislature passed several laws intended to restrict access to abortion services. The laws would criminalize abortions performed after 18 weeks and impose other undue burdens on women’s constitutional right to safe and legal abortion. Plaintiffs argue that Arkansas’ laws would make abortion care either unavailable or less safe for women.

On July 28, 2019, the U.S. District Court granted the plaintiff’s motion for preliminary injunction, which temporarily blocked the Arkansas laws restricting abortion care. Arkansas appealed the decision to the Circuit Court of Appeals for the Eighth District shortly thereafter.

Joining Maryland in filing today’s brief are the attorneys general of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, and Washington.