More than a year after the lawsuits were filed, two legal challenges targeting North Carolina’s abortion restrictions remain in court.

One case focuses on two provisions of the 12-week abortion ban GOP lawmakers passed last year. While the main thrust of that law went into effect July 2023, and has not been successfully challenged in the courts, two of the law’s provisions were challenged by Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers, and have been temporarily blocked since September.

The second case takes aim at the state’s restrictions on medication abortions, and was filed in January 2023, after the conservative-majority U.S. Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to abortion, but before North Carolina passed its new law.

U.S. District Judge Catherine Eagles, who has heard arguments in both cases, issued a ruling in the medication abortion case last month — which is now being appealed — and is expected to issue a ruling in the other case soon.

Here’s a look at how the two cases originated and where they stand now.

Planned Parenthood’s lawsuit over new abortion law

The case challenging provisions of the state’s new abortion law began in June 2023, when Planned Parenthood filed a lawsuit in federal court, and sought a temporary restraining order to prevent the entire law from taking effect as the legal challenge moved forward.

(In addition to lowering the threshold after which most abortions are banned to 12 weeks, the law also put into place additional requirements for patients and providers, including a requirement that women receiving medication abortions complete two additional in-person appointments. The law also included more than $180 million in state and federal funds for services including child care and foster care.)

Eagles didn’t grant that request but blocked one provision of the law, which requires physicians who prescribe medication abortions to document the existence of a pregnancy within the uterus at the early stages of gestation.

Abortion providers who challenged the law have argued the provision doesn’t give guidance on how to satisfy the requirement, and could block physicians from prescribing abortion pills early in pregnancies, when an embryo may not be able to be located using an ultrasound.

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