[JURIST] North Carolina’s Attorney General (AG) Roy Cooper [official website] announced Friday that he plans to appeal a recent decision by the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit [official website] that struck down [JURIST report] the state’s ultrasound abortion law, the Women’s Right to Know Act [text, PDF]. The Fourth Circuit held that the law, which requires physicians to display and describe ultrasound images to women seeking abortions, is an unconstitutional violation of the First Amendment [text]. Cooper’s spokesperson told reporters [AP report], “Monday’s opinion holding North Carolina’s law unconstitutional is now in conflict with Lakey, a case involving a similar Texas law which the Fifth Circuit Court upheld.” The AG plans to make the appeal as a result of the conflicting opinions of the circuits.

Reproductive rights [JURIST backgrounder] continue to be a hot-button legal issue throughout the US, with a number of states proposing laws to limit abortions. Earlier this month, a federal judge struck down [JURIST report] an Indiana law that altered the requirements for abortion clinics who only perform drug-induced abortions. In October the North Dakota Supreme Court affirmed [JURIST report] an existing state law limiting the use of drugs in abortion procedures. Also last month Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood filed an appeal asking the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit to reverse a July ruling [JURIST report] that a 2012 state law requiring abortion clinic doctors to obtain hospital admitting privileges is unconstitutional. In August the US District Court for the Middle District of Alabama, Northern Division ruled [JURIST report] that Alabama’s recently enacted [JURIST op-ed] requirement [HB 57] that all doctors who provide abortions must have staff privileges to perform designated procedures at a local hospital is unconstitutional.