No. _________ In the Supreme Court of the United States ────────────────────────── STEVEN T. MARSHALL, IN HIS OFFICIAL CAPACITY AS ALABAMA ATTORNEY GENERAL, ET AL., Petitioners, v. WEST ALABAMA WOMEN’S CENTER, ET AL., Respondents. ────────────────────────── On Petition for Writ of Certiorari to the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit ────────────────────────── PETITION FOR A WRIT OF CERTIORARI ────────────────────────── STEVE MARSHALL Alabama Attorney Gen’l James W. Davis* Alabama Dep. Att’y Gen’l *Counsel of Record OFFICE OF THE ALABAMA ATTORNEY GENERAL 501 Washington Avenue Montgomery, AL 36130 (334) 242-7300
[email protected] Counsel for Petitioner December 20, 2018 i QUESTION PRESENTED Like several states, Alabama prohibits “dismemberment abortion.” In a “dismemberment abortion,” a doctor “dismember[s] a living unborn child and extract[s] him or her one piece at a time from the uterus through use of clamps, grasping forceps, tongs, scissors, or similar instruments that, through the convergence of two rigid levers, slice, crush, or grasp . a portion of the unborn child’s body to cut or rip it off.” Ala. Code § 26-23G-2(3). Dismemberment abortion is similar to partial birth abortion, which this Court has said the government can prohibit. Gonzales v. Carhart, 550 U.S. 124, 133 (2007). But the court of appeals below reluctantly concluded that Alabama is prohibited from banning dismemberment abortions under this Court’s more recent abortion decisions. The question presented is: Whether a state ban on dismemberment abor- tions is unconstitutional where there is a reasonable medical debate that alternatives to the banned pro- cedure are safe? ii PARTIES AND AFFILIATES Steven T.