MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) – Alabama on Thursday asked an appellate court to allow it to limit abortions as part of a ban on elective medical procedures during the COVID-19 epidemic.
Attorney General Steve Marshall said the state is appealing to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals seeking to overturn an injunction issued last week by a federal judge against a state health order. Alabama argued in court filings that some abortions can be safely and legally postponed as the state tries to conserve medical equipment and fight the spread of the virus.
State lawyers argued the injunction health order “imposes only a temporary burden on abortion access by requiring providers to postpone procedures that, in their professional medical judgment, can safely be postponed.”
“Delay of a few weeks for public health reasons does not amount to a total denial,” the attorney general’s office wrote.
Similar legal fights over abortions during the pandemic are ongoing in Texas, Ohio and Oklahoma.