American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey
State Court Temporarily Halts Georgia Abortion Ban
December 26, 2012
State Court Temporarily Halts Georgia Abortion Ban
The Superior Court of Fulton County last Friday temporarily suspended a Georgia law banning pre-viability abortions. The law would have criminalized virtually all abortions starting at 20 weeks of pregnancy, with only an extremely narrow exception for the woman's health.
The American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Georgia challenged the law on behalf of three Georgia obstetrician-gynecologists whose patients include women in need of this essential medical care.
“This law places women in harm’s way by depriving them of the right to make their own serious medical decisions,” said Alexa Kolbi-Molinas, staff attorney with the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project. “Politicians should not place ideology over a woman's health."
Although very few abortions occur after 20 weeks, a woman who has an abortion at this point does so for a variety of reasons, including the fact that continuing the pregnancy poses a threat to her health, that the fetus has been diagnosed with a medical condition or anomaly, or that the pregnancy has failed, and miscarriage is inevitable.
“We’re glad that this dangerous, overreaching law has been put on hold,” said Chad Brock, staff attorney with the ACLU of Georgia. “If our elected officials want to help women, they should be passing laws that increase their access to vital health services – not putting them in jeopardy by denying them critical care.”
For more information on this case, please visit: www.aclu.org/reproductive-freedom-womens-rights/lathrop-et-al-v-deal-et-al
Lathrop, et al. v. Deal, et al. - Complaint
Lathrop, et al. v. Deal, et al. - Motion for Injunctive Relief
Lathrop, et al. v. Deal, et al. - Brief in Support of Motion for Injunctive Relief
Lathrop, et al. v. Deal, et al. - Preliminarty Injunction
State Court Temporarily Halts Georgia Abortion Ban
December 26, 2012
State Court Temporarily Halts Georgia Abortion Ban
The Superior Court of Fulton County last Friday temporarily suspended a Georgia law banning pre-viability abortions. The law would have criminalized virtually all abortions starting at 20 weeks of pregnancy, with only an extremely narrow exception for the woman's health.
The American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Georgia challenged the law on behalf of three Georgia obstetrician-gynecologists whose patients include women in need of this essential medical care.
“This law places women in harm’s way by depriving them of the right to make their own serious medical decisions,” said Alexa Kolbi-Molinas, staff attorney with the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project. “Politicians should not place ideology over a woman's health."
Although very few abortions occur after 20 weeks, a woman who has an abortion at this point does so for a variety of reasons, including the fact that continuing the pregnancy poses a threat to her health, that the fetus has been diagnosed with a medical condition or anomaly, or that the pregnancy has failed, and miscarriage is inevitable.
“We’re glad that this dangerous, overreaching law has been put on hold,” said Chad Brock, staff attorney with the ACLU of Georgia. “If our elected officials want to help women, they should be passing laws that increase their access to vital health services – not putting them in jeopardy by denying them critical care.”
For more information on this case, please visit: www.aclu.org/reproductive-freedom-womens-rights/lathrop-et-al-v-deal-et-al
Legal Docs
Lathrop, et al. v. Deal, et al. - Complaint
Lathrop, et al. v. Deal, et al. - Motion for Injunctive Relief
Lathrop, et al. v. Deal, et al. - Brief for Support of Motion for Injunctive Relief
Lathrip, et al. v. Deal, et al. - Preliminary Injunction
ALCU Foundation of Georgia Seeks Details on Automatic License Plate Readers from Georgia Agencies as Part of Massive Nationwide Request
July 30, 2012
The ACLU Foundation of Georgia joined more than 36 ACLU affiliates today in sending open records requests to local law enforcement agencies on how they use automatic license plate readers (ALPR) to track and record Americans’ movements in 38 states.
The ACLU Foundation of Georgia also sent Open Records Requests to the Georgia Emergency Management Agency/Homeland Security (GEMA) to learn how the federal government funds and uses ALPR technology.
ALPRs are cameras mounted on patrol cars or on stationary objects along roads – such as telephone poles or the underside of bridges –that snap a photograph of every license plate that enters their fields of view. Typically, each photo is time, date, and GPS-stamped, stored, and sent to a database, which provides an alert to a patrol officer whenever a match or “hit” appears.
ALPRs are spreading rapidly around the country, but the public has little information about how they are used to track motorists’ movements, including how long data collected by ALPRs is stored, and whether local police departments pool this information in state, regional or national databases. If ALPRs are being used as a tool for mass routine location tracking and surveillance and to collect and store information not just on people suspected of crimes, but on every single motorist, the American people should know that so that they can voice their concerns. People have a right to know whether our police departments are using these ALPRs in a limited and responsible manner, or whether they are keeping records of our movements for months or years for no good reason. ALPRs have already proven controversial. Just last month the Drug Enforcement Administration withdrew its request to install ALPRs along certain portions of Interstate 15 in Utah after they were met with resistance by local lawmakers.
Serious privacy concerns arise when tracking and recording people’s movements. Where we go can reveal a great deal about us, including visits to doctor’s offices, political meetings, and friends. We need legal protections to limit the collection, retention and sharing of our travel information. The information request issued today is a first step.
More information about the requests is available at: aclu.org/plates
