Pro-choice protesters gather at the Supreme Court. The court on Thursday declined to take a case from Alabama on an appeal of the state's overturned ban on abortion. | Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images Legal Supreme Court rejects Alabama's request to reconsider abortion ban that was blocked

The Supreme Court on Friday rejected Alabama's request to resurrect the state's ban on a procedure commonly used in second trimester abortions, marking a win for supporters of abortion rights.

The conservative-leaning 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last year ruled against the ban on the procedure, known as dilation and evacuation, finding it was an "undue burden on abortion access." The Supreme Court's refusal to hear the case lets the appellate court decision stand,


The West Alabama Women's Center sued to overturn the 2016 ban, arguing that reducing access to abortions later in pregnancy disproportionately harms the “most vulnerable residents” of the state and may expose women to significant medical risks. The ban on the procedure was separate from Alabama's recently enacted law prohibiting abortion at any point during pregnancy.

The state argued that dilation and evacuation is "just as disturbing" as dilation and extraction, an abortion method later in pregnancy the Supreme Court allowed to be banned in 2007, and repeatedly refer to it in legal filings as a "dismemberment abortion." The state also claimed courts should not block the law because there is "medical uncertainty" over whether or not it would force doctors to use riskier methods.

Justice Clarence Thomas condemned the court's refusal to take the case and several abortion-related challenges the court passed on in the term that ended Thursday.

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"This case serves as a stark reminder that our abortion jurisprudence has spiraled out of control," the conservative justice wrote.

The court this term — the first with Justice Brett Kavanaugh on the bench — declined to consider whether GOP states could cut Planned Parenthood from Medicaid, and it refused to revive an Indiana law that would have banned abortions based on a fetus's sex, race or disability. It did, however, reinstate a separate Indiana measure requiring fetal remains to be buried or cremated.

But the high court could soon consider a Louisiana law requiring abortion providers to have admitting privileges at local hospitals. The court in a 5-4 decision earlier this year temporarily blocked the law from taking effect while it's under appeal, but the justices are now considering whether to hear the case on its merits. It takes just four justices to agree to hear a case.

A number of other states this year have also passed laws severely restricting or virtually banning all abortions, hoping to trigger a legal challenge that could allow the Supreme Court to reconsider abortion rights. It seems unlikely those could cases could reach the Supreme Court in the next term, starting in October.

Andrew Beck, senior staff attorney at the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project, said the rejection of Alabama's request "is nowhere near the end of efforts to undermine access to abortion."

"Politicians are lining up to do just what Alabama did — ask the courts to review laws that push abortion out of reach and harm women’s health, with the hope of the getting the Supreme Court to undermine, or even overturn, a woman’s right to abortion,” Beck said in a statement.

It's possible the Supreme Court could eventually revisit whether to ban the dilation and evacuation procedure. Numerous states have passed similar bans over the last few years, including Arkansas, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana Mississippi, Ohio, Oklahoma, Texas and West Virginia.

Courts have blocked most from taking effect. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is still weighing a case involving the Texas ban, and Kentucky has asked the 6th Circuit to reinstate its ban, which was blocked by a federal judge last month.

Renuka Rayasam contributed to this report.

