Abortion remains legal on Guam after a federal judge denied a request to lift a long-standing permanent injunction blocking a blanket ban on abortion.
U.S. District Court for the District of Guam has upheld Attorney General Douglas Moylan’s request to revoke a federal court’s permanent injunction from 1990 that barred Guam from enforcing laws making it a felony for doctors to perform abortions. Patients who refused and had a miscarriage.
This ruling means that abortion care will continue to be available on the island. If the ban had been upheld, it would have imposed a significant barrier, as residents of remote U.S. territories seeking abortions cannot drive across state lines to undergo the procedure.
Hawaii is the closest U.S. state to Guam where abortions are legal, but Honolulu is nearly 4,000 miles away.
Moylan argued that the original injunction was based on Roe v. Wade’s constitutional right to abortion. When the Supreme Court overturned that decision, the legal basis for the injunction ceased to exist.
However, Chief Justice Frances M. Tydingco-Gatewood said Moylan failed to meet her obligation to show whether the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization upheld the injunction to be entirely void. I am writing.
Guam law still largely bans 13-week abortions, but medical abortions remain available through telemedicine.
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