WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Friday turned down an appeal asking it to revive an Alabama law that would have banned the procedure used in the vast majority of second-trimester abortions.

As is their custom, the justices gave no reasons for declining to hear the case. Justice Clarence Thomas issued a concurring opinion that called the procedure gruesome and unconstitutional. “This case serves as a stark reminder,” he wrote, “that our abortion jurisprudence has spiraled out of control.”

The procedure, known as dilation and extraction, involves dilating the woman’s cervix and removing the fetus in pieces. Opponents of abortion call it “dismemberment abortion.”

Justice Thomas adopted that terminology. “The notion that anything in the Constitution prevents states from passing laws prohibiting the dismembering of a living child is implausible,” he wrote.