Abortion providers sue North Carolina over restrictive new law

Abortion providers in North Carolina have filed a federal lawsuit challenging several provisions of a state law banning most abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy.
The law includes additional restrictions that many patients are not aware of, which will impede health care professionals from providing quality care.
The lawsuit challenges a requirement that sexual assault survivors obtain abortions at a hospital after 12 weeks of pregnancy, rather than at one of the many clinics Planned Parenthood and other providers operate around the state.
The law adds exceptions, extending the limit through 20 weeks for rape and incest and through 24 weeks for life-limiting fetal anomalies, but abortion-rights advocates say limits on those exceptions, as well as new hurdles for patients and providers, make the law much more restrictive than the headline-grabbing 12-week limit conveys.
The new restrictions set to take effect on July 1 will make it harder for out-of-state patients to access abortions later in pregnancy.