The Center for Reproductive Rights, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the ACLU of Florida [advocacy website] filed a lawsuit [motion, PDF] Thursday challenging a Florida law [HB 633 materials] requiring women to visit a doctor and wait 24 hours before undergoing an abortion. Florida Governor Rick Scott signed the bill into law [press release] Wednesday, and it is scheduled to take effect July 1. The lawsuit was filed in the Circuit Court of Leon County on behalf of Bread and Roses Women’s Health Center and Medical Students for Choice. The plaintiffs are seeking an emergency injunction to block the law’s implementation:

By subjecting all women seeking abortion care to both a mandatory twenty-four hour delay and an additional-trip requirement—a burden placed on patients seeking no other medical procedure in Florida, much less a medical procedure protected by the state Constitution as a fundamental right—the Act can only serve to deter women from seeking abortions, and to punish and discriminate against those who do. By impeding a woman’s access to abortion, the Act violates her right to privacy as guaranteed under article I, section 23 of the Florida Constitution. Because Plaintiffs are likely to succeed on the merits of their claims and they, along with their patients and all Florida women seeking abortions, will suffer irreparable harm if the Act is not enjoined, and because an injunction will serve the public interest, this Court should issue immediate temporary injunctive relief against enforcement of the Act.

The legislation includes exceptions for women who can produce a police report or hospital record demonstrating that the pregnancy was a result of rape, incest, domestic violence or human trafficking.

Reproductive rights issues [JURIST backgrounder] remain controversial throughout the US. Earlier this week the Wisconsin Senate approved [JURIST report] the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, limiting the ability of a woman to seek an abortion more than 20 weeks into her pregnancy. Also this week the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit [official website] upheld [JURIST report] some of the strictest parts of a Texas abortion law, which could cause the majority of the state’s abortion clinics to close, leaving only seven open. Earlier this month the North Carolina legislature gave final approval [JURIST report] to the Women and Children’s Protection Act of 2015, which mandates a 72-hour waiting period for abortions after a woman has been informed of her options and the risks of the procedure, except in the case of a medical emergency. In May the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit [official website] struck down [JURIST report] two parts of Idaho abortion laws—one which banned all abortions after 20 weeks, and the other which required that women seeking abortions in their second trimester do so in a hospital. Also in May Tennessee adopted a law [JURIST report] that requires 48-hour waiting periods for women seeking an abortion.