This Texas district attorney is one of dozens who have vowed not to prosecute abortion
Updated June 29, 2022 at 10:40 AM ET
The US Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade leaves decisions about abortion access up to states, many of which have moved quickly to limit it.
And while dozens of states were prepared with trigger laws that would immediately ban or restrict abortions, some are now encountering obstacles in implementation and enforcement. The pushback is coming from within their own borders, in the form of legal challenges from abortion rights advocates and opposition from local prosecutors.
Judges in states including Louisiana and Utah have temporarily blocked abortion bans from taking effect in order to hear challenges against them. And dozens of local prosecutors across the country have publicly pledged not to prosecute people who seek, facilitate or provide abortions.
in a joint statement originally issued Friday, 88 elected prosecutors — mostly district attorneys and attorneys general — vowed not to prosecute abortions, calling the criminalization of abortion care “a mockery of justice.”
The prosecutors come from counties in both blue and red states, including those with strict anti-abortion laws including Georgia and Texas. They collectively represent more than 91.5 million people from 30 states and territories as well as Washington, DC, according to Fair and Just Prosecutionthe group that organized and distributed the statement.
“Not all of us agree on a personal or moral level on the issue of abortion,” they wrote. “But we stand together in our firm belief that prosecutors have a responsibility to refrain from using limited criminal legal system resources to criminalize personal medical decisions.”
They argue that enforcing abortion bans runs counter to their sworn obligation to protect the safety and well-being of their communities, since it would erode trust in the legal system, divert resources from the enforcement of serious crime and