Federal Appeals Court Rejects Challenge To NY Abortion Law

New York’s abortion laws were upheld by a federal appeals court on Tuesday, which rejected a class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of unborn fetuses in the state.

The ruling by the Manhattan-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a District Court judge’s dismissal of the constitutional challenge to New York’s Reproductive Health Act, a six-year old law that enshrines the right to abortion in the state.

A lawsuit filed by a social worker, known only as Mary Doe in court filings, argued that the 2019 law created an “imminent danger” to unborn fetuses by making them vulnerable to “lethal attacks” that violate their constitutional right to equal protection. Her lawyers had asked the court to certify the legal challenge as a class-action lawsuit aimed at protecting any unborn fetuses.

U.S. Circuit Judge Richard Sullivan, writing for the three-judge panel, affirmed the lower court’s dismissal because Doe “failed to identify or otherwise describe any class member in the viable fetus class that she sought to represent.”

“Without describing at least one class member and the injury he faces, Doe necessarily cannot meet her burden of plausibly establishing a live case or controversy under Article III,” he wrote in the 43-page ruling.

Sullivan said allowing plaintiff-less complaints like Doe’s to proceed as class-action lawsuits “would invite the very sort of advisory opinions that Article III seeks to safeguard against.”

“Any number of concerned bystanders could exploit next friend standing to challenge state or national laws they disagree with, even though they lack a personal stake in the dispute,” he said.