July, 23 2019, 12:00am EDT
Leading Advocates and Health Care Providers File Motion for Preliminary Injunction on Georgia Abortion Ban
Leading advocates and health care providers today filed a brief for preliminary injunctive relief in Sistersong v. Kemp, asking the court to block Georgia's abortion ban from going into effect while the case is ongoing. The motion was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Georgia, the Center for Reproductive Rights, Planned Parenthood, SisterSong, and medical providers including Feminist Women's Health Center.
ATLANTA, GA
Leading advocates and health care providers today filed a brief for preliminary injunctive relief in Sistersong v. Kemp, asking the court to block Georgia's abortion ban from going into effect while the case is ongoing. The motion was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Georgia, the Center for Reproductive Rights, Planned Parenthood, SisterSong, and medical providers including Feminist Women's Health Center.
Originally filed in June, the groups' lawsuit challenges Georgia's abortion ban that is set to take effect on January 1, 2020. The law bans abortion from the earliest weeks of pregnancy before many women even know they are pregnant.
As the motion for preliminary injunctive relief states, Georgia's abortion ban is in clear violation of Roe v. Wade and nearly a half-century of Supreme Court precedent reaffirming Roe's central holding. As the court wrote in 1992, "The ability of women to participate equally in the economic and social life of the Nation has been facilitated by their ability to control their reproductive lives."
Georgia is one of several states that have passed laws banning abortion this year, representing an unprecedented surge of legislation designed to initiate a direct challenge to Roe v. Wade. Aside from Georgia, Alabama passed a near-total ban; Kentucky, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Ohio passed six-week bans; Missouri passed an eight-week ban; and Utah and Arkansas passed 18-week bans. None of these bans have yet gone into effect, and abortion remains legal in all 50 states.
The ACLU has also challenged the bans in Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Ohio, and Utah.
The organizations issued the following statements:
"In a state with a critical shortage of medical providers and some of the highest rates of maternal and infant deaths, especially among Black Georgians, politicians should focus on expanding access to reproductive care, not banning abortion before someone even knows they're pregnant," said Talcott Camp, deputy director of the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project.
"This legislation is blatantly unconstitutional under nearly 50 years of U.S. Supreme Court precedent. Politicians should never second guess women's healthcare decisions," said Sean J. Young, legal director of the ACLU of Georgia. "Politicians have no business telling women or a couple when to start or expand a family. Our lawsuit asks the court to block the law from taking effect on January 1, 2020."
"Georgia is one of 12 states that have passed abortion bans this year in the hopes of overturning Roe v. Wade," said Nancy Northup, president and CEO at the Center for Reproductive Rights. "None of these laws are in effect, and we are fighting to keep it that way. For nearly half a century, the Supreme Court has protected the right to abortion, and we know the majority of Americans continue to support abortion access."
"This year, 37 states introduced abortion bans. Twelve states passed them, including Georgia. If there's one thing this unprecedented attack on reproductive health and rights has shown us, it's that we don't have the luxury of being a health care provider or an advocate. We must be both. Because our patients' constitutional rights are on the line. And if we don't continue to fight back, their lives will be on the line too," said Staci Fox, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Southeast.
"As a reproductive justice organization based in Georgia for over 20 years, SisterSong is committed to centering and amplifying the needs of those communities historically pushed to the margins. Georgia's maternal mortality rate is the second-highest in the nation and Black women in our state are dying at six times the national average. SisterSong is bringing this lawsuit to protect maternal health and reproductive rights so that every person - especially persons of color - can thrive in their families and communities as well as maintain their human right to make their own decisions about their reproductive lives," said Monica Simpson, executive director of SisterSong.
"Feminist Women's Health Center has been providing comprehensive reproductive health services, including abortion care, to Georgians since 1976 and mobilizing in our communities since 1996. We are challenging this unconstitutional law because we are committed to serving our patients and to a vision of Georgia where reproductive justice is fully realized for everyone. This clinic stays open," said Kwajelyn J. Jackson, executive director of Feminist Women's Health Center.
The organizations bringing forward the lawsuit are SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective, Feminist Women's Health Center, Planned Parenthood Southeast, Inc., Atlanta Comprehensive Wellness Clinic, Atlanta Women's Medical Center, FemHealth USA d/b/a carafem, Columbus Women's Health Organization, P.C., Summit Medical Associates, P.C., Carrie Cwiak, M.D., M.P.H., Lisa Haddad, M.D., M.S., M.P.H., and Eva Lathrop, M.D., M.P.H.
The defendants in the case are Georgia Governor Brian Kemp, Attorney General Christopher M. Carr, Commissioner for the Department of Public Health Kathleen Toomey, the Executive Director and Members of the Georgia Composite Medical Board, and the District Attorneys for the counties where the plaintiffs provide medical care -- all sued in their official capacities.
SisterSong v. Kemp was filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, Atlanta Division.
The American Civil Liberties Union was founded in 1920 and is our nation's guardian of liberty. The ACLU works in the courts, legislatures and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to all people in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States.
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'Right Thing to Do': FERC Delays Controversial LNG Export Terminal
"We are happy about the delay, but these projects don't ever need to be approved and neither does any other LNG facility," one frontline advocate said.
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Frontline communities along the Gulf Coast were granted a "temporary reprieve" last week when the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission moved to pause its approval of the controversial Calcasieu Pass 2 liquefied natural gas export terminal while it conducts an assessment of its impact on air quality.
FERC approved Venture Global's CP2 in late June despite opposition from local residents who say the company's nearly identical Calcasieu Pass terminal has already wracked up a history of air quality violations and disturbed ecosystems and fishing grounds in Louisiana's Cameron Parish, harming health and livelihoods.
"This order reveals that FERC recognizes that CP2 LNG's environmental impacts are too great to pass through any real scrutiny" Megan Gibson, a senior attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC), said in a statement on Monday.
"FERC's pause on construction may give us some temporary reprieve, but this project never should have been authorized in the first place."
FERC's decision follows a request for a rehearing of its June decision filed by frontline residents and community groups including For a Better Bayou and Fishermen Involved in Sustaining Our Heritage (FISH) as well as the Sierra Club and the Natural Resources Defense Council. In their request, the groups and individuals pointed to errors the commission had made in its approval decision.
"With this order, it seems FERC is finally willing to acknowledge that it has not done enough to properly consider the cumulative harm on communities caused by building so many of these LNG export terminals so close together," Nathan Matthews, a Sierra Club senior attorney, said in a statement. "Prohibiting construction of CP2 LNG while FERC takes another look at the environmental impact of this massive, polluting facility is the right thing to do."
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FERC's decision comes over four months after the D.C. Circuit Court remanded the commission's approval of Commonwealth LNG, also in Louisiana, over concerns that it had not fully assessed the impacts of that project's air pollution emissions. Now, frontline advocates are urging FERC to do its due diligence as it weighs the environmental impacts of CP2.
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Gibson of SELC said that FERC had already repeated some of the errors in its CP2 approval in its new order.
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FERC's decision comes as the fate of the LNG buildout itself hangs in the balance. The Biden administration's Department of Energy is currently rushing to complete its renewed assessment of whether or not LNG exports serve the public interest. Environmental and frontline groups have argued that they do not because of local pollution, the fact that they would raise domestic energy bills, and their contribution to the climate emergency. CP2 alone would spew 8,510,099 metric tons of carbon dioxide-equivalent per year, which is about the same as adding 1,850,000 new gas cars to the road.
While President-elect Donald Trump has promised to "drill, baby, drill" and is likely to disregard any Biden administration conclusions, a strong outgoing statement against LNG exports would help bolster legal challenges to Trump energy policy.
At the same time, Bill McKibben pointed out in a column on Tuesday that the administration's pause on LNG export approvals while it updates its public interest criteria has acted to slow the industry's expansion, and that FERC's reconsideration of CP2 could add to this delay.
"The vote for the new review is 4-0, and bipartisan," McKibben wrote. "It could slow down approvals for the project till, perhaps, the third quarter of next year. And that's good news, because the rationale for new LNG exports shrinks with each passing month, as the gap between the price of clean solar, wind, and battery power, and the price of fossil fuel, continues to grow."
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"I, along with the fishermen in Cameron, Louisiana, know firsthand how harmful LNG exports are, and see the total disregard they have for human life as they poison our families and seafood," said FISH founder Travis Dardar, an Indigenous fisherman in Cameron, Louisiana. "FERC's pause on construction may give us some temporary reprieve, but this project never should have been authorized in the first place. As far as anyone who believes in the fairytale of LNG being cleaner, we have paid with our communities and livelihoods. It's time to break these chains and turn away from this false solution."
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The $2 trillion number is also twice the amount of wealth that the top 12 US billionaires held in 2020, according to researchers at IPS, a progressive organization.
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"The Yoon Suk Yeol regime has declared its own end of power," said the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions.
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The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) led marches Wednesday and vowed that its 1.2-million-strong membership would strike until Yoon steps aside. Prior to Tuesday night, martial law was last imposed in South Korea more than four decades ago.
Yoon's decree prompted the resignation of his chief of staff, defense minister, and other officials.
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VIDEO: South Korean protesters call for President Yoon's arrest after martial law attempt.
South Koreans gather at Seoul's downtown Gwanghwamun in a protest to demand the resignation of President Yoon Suk Yeol after he abandoned a short-lived attempt at martial law that plunged… pic.twitter.com/6b2y2i8tUH
— AFP News Agency (@AFP) December 4, 2024
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