Robinson, et al. v. Marshall, et al.

Alabama House Bill 314 (HB 314) bans ​virtually all abortions in the state. Governor Kay Ivey signed HB 314 into law on May 15, 2019, making Alabama the fifth state in 2019 to ban abortion. The federal lawsuit, which was brought on behalf of all of Alabama’s abortion providers and their patients, successfully blocked Alabama’s unconstitutional abortion ban from taking effect in October 2019.

This near-total abortion ban was part of a long line of medically unnecessary and politically motivated restrictions passed by anti-abortion politicians in Alabama that aim to push care out of reach. Over the years, the ACLU and the Planned Parenthood Federation of America successfully challenged multiple such restrictions.

Alabama’s extreme abortion ban was part of a national strategy to push abortion care out of reach. In 2019, Kentucky, Georgia, Ohio, and Mississippi, Missouri, and Louisiana also enacted laws banning abortion. In addition to Alabama, the ACLU obtained injunctions blocking the Kentucky, Ohio, Georgia, and Missouri bans.

On June 24, 2022, the District Court dissolved the preliminary injunction in light of the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs, and on June 30, 2022, the challenge to the ban was dismissed without prejudice.

In addition to Dr. Yashica Robinson, plaintiffs represented in the case are Alabama Women’s Center, Reproductive Health Services, West Alabama Women’s Center, and Planned Parenthood Southeast.