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MONTGOMERY, Ala. – A federal judge has declared unconstitutional a state law that would have forced all but two of the licensed health centers in Alabama to stop providing abortions, saying that "if this requirement would not … constitute an impermissible undue burden, then almost no regulation, short of those imposing an outright prohibition on abortion, would."

The law at issue singled out doctors who provide abortions and required them to obtain staff privileges a local hospital. Similar laws have forced health centers across Texas to stop providing abortions and threatened to shutter Mississippi’s last abortion center and to close health centers in Oklahoma, Louisiana and Wisconsin.

Leading national medical groups, such as the American Medical Association (AMA) and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), oppose laws like these because they do little for patient safety. In fact, these laws put women at risk because they force quality health care providers to close.

Below, find a quote from Louise Melling , deputy legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union:

"As the judge noted today, the justifications offered for this law are weak at best," said Louise Melling, deputy legal director of the ACLU. "Politicians, not doctors, crafted this law for the sole purpose of shutting down women’s health care centers and preventing women from getting safe, legal abortions."