In North Carolina and across the country, a woman's right to access safe and legal abortion has been under unprecedented attack. But last year, one of the more intrusive assaults on reproductive freedom was defeated once and for all in North Carolina, thanks to a group of abortion providers who volunteered to serve as plaintiffs in a lawsuit brought by the ACLU and other groups.
In recognition of their efforts, we are proud to honor the plaintiffs in Stuart et al. v. Camnitz with the 2016 ACLU-NC Award for extraordinary contributions to the fight for civil liberties in North Carolina.
Join us as we honor these courageous medical professionals at the 2016 Liberty Awards Dinner in Chapel Hill on Saturday, April 2.
In 2011, the North Carolina General Assembly passed a demeaning, medically unnecessary law that would have forced abortion providers to show a woman an ultrasound and describe the images in detail before she had an abortion, regardless of her circumstances.
The ACLU and other groups filed a challenge to the law on behalf of abortion providers who argued that the law impeded their ability to provide individualized care to their patients based on their specific needs. In response, a federal court struck down the law, finding that it violated the providers' First Amendment rights to make them read a government-mandated script to their patients. North Carolina unsuccessfully appealed the ruling all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which last year declined to hear the case, preventing the intrusive law from ever going into effect.
Make your reservations today to honor these providers and other civil liberties heroes, including Southerners on New Ground and criminal justice reform advocate Darryl Hunt, at the 2016 Liberty Awards.
