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By EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS Associated Press
Mississippi's governor and attorney general will have to decide whether to challenge a federal appeals court ruling that is keeping the state's only abortion clinic in business.
A panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals voted 2-1 Tuesday to block a 2012 Mississippi law that requires abortion doctors to obtain admitting privileges at nearby hospitals. (So the law makes a reasonable requirement that doctors performing abortions have medical standing, that is, they're of a reputation and skill that a local hospital would work with them by admitting their clients.)
When Republican Gov. Phil Bryant signed the law, he said he hoped it would end abortion in the state. In defending the law, state attorneys said women with unwanted pregnancies could always travel to other states. But the appellate judges ruled that every state must guarantee constitutional rights, including abortion. (So the court doesn't address the professional status of abortion doctors, it addresses access to abortion. The court said that is is more important to get an abortion than it is to have a highly skilled doctor performing it.
But worse than that is the court's flawed reasoning: Guaranteeing a constitutional right to abortion is the same thing as having the ability to get an abortion without having to go out of state. This is truly tortured logic. This places the state in the position of not only safeguarding the exercise of rights, but ensuring the means exists to exercise them, i.e., removing obstacles from the operation of a business enterprise that provides abortion services.
Let's see how this flies with rights that are actually enumerated in the Constitution. There are no churches in a particular region, so the court rules that building codes must be suspended so that a church facility can be built. The last gun shop in the state is about to close because of onerous gun regulations. The court therefore nullifies all gun control laws.
Can you see how screwy the ruling is?)
Bryant, in a statement late Tuesday, said he was disappointed by the court's ruling.
"This measure is designed to protect the health and safety of women who undergo this potentially dangerous procedure, and physicians who provide abortions should be held to the same standards as physicians who perform other outpatient procedures," Bryant said.
Ten states have adopted similar laws, forcing a growing number of clinics to close. Many hospitals ignore or reject abortion doctors' applications, and won't grant privileges to out-of-state physicians. Both obstacles were encountered by the traveling doctors who staff Mississippi's last open clinic, the Jackson Women's Health Organization. (So actually it is the fault of the hospitals for having high standards for doctors to have admitting privileges. The court should have simply forced hospitals to grant admitting privileges, I guess.)
The ruling from the conservative 5th Circuit was narrowly crafted to address the situation in Mississippi, but it could have implications for the other states with similar laws and dwindling access to abortion, such as Wisconsin and Alabama, whose officials have said women could cross state lines if clinics close, said the center's litigation director, Julie Rikelman.
Attorneys for Mississippi argued that if the state's last clinic closed, women could still get abortions in other states. But the judges said the U.S. Supreme Court's 1973 Roe v. Wade decision established a constitutional right to abortion for all citizens — and that Mississippi may not shift its obligations to other states. (How can a constitutional right be "established?" It isn't possible. A "constitutional right" is simply a right that was enumerated by the Constitution as it defined the limits of government. Rights are endowed by the Creator as a fact of existence, which makes them unalienable.
The right to abortion is a legal right, not a constitutional right. A future court could easily reverse Roe v. Wade. However, an unalienable right can only be violated, not reversed.)
"Pre-viability, a woman has the constitutional right to end her pregnancy by abortion," wrote judges E. Grady Jolly of Mississippi and Stephen A. Higginson of Louisiana. The law signed by Bryant "effectively extinguishes that right within Mississippi's borders," they said. (Truly astonishing. A right that depends on a business operating in certain geographical borders is not a right at all, it is an operation of commerce by private parties. This makes no sense at all.)
Supporters of admitting-privileges laws say they protect women's health by ensuring that a physician who performs an abortion in a clinic would also be able to treat the patient in a hospital in case of complications.
Opponents say the requirement is unnecessary, since patients in distress are automatically treated in emergency rooms, and that it gives religious-affiliated hospitals veto power over who can work in an abortion clinic and, by extension, whether a clinic can stay open.
"Today's ruling ensures women who have decided to end a pregnancy will continue, for now, to have access to safe, legal care in their home state," Center for Reproductive Rights president Nancy Northup said Tuesday.
A different panel of the 5th Circuit, which handles cases from Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas, upheld a 2013 Texas law requiring physicians to have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles. In that March ruling, the judges said traveling fewer than 150 miles to obtain an abortion is "not an undue burden."
Even now, women from Iuka, Mississippi, in the state's northeast corner, need to drive 280 miles to reach Jackson.
The clinic remains open, using out-of-state physicians who travel to Mississippi to do abortions several times a month. For years, the clinic has had an agreement with a local physician who will meet a patient at a Jackson hospital in case of complications. Clinic owner Diane Derzis has said such complications are rare. (We know this to be false. There were 1.4 million abortions in North America in 2012, and 6% of them are considered unsafe, as reported by the Guttmacher Institute, which is the data gathering arm of Planned Parenthood. That's 84,000 unsafe abortions EACH YEAR. And 2220 women had abortions in Mississippi in 2011, so 133 were unsafe. That is not "rare" by any measure.
"Pre-viability, a woman has the constitutional right to end her pregnancy by abortion," wrote judges E. Grady Jolly of Mississippi and Stephen A. Higginson of Louisiana. The law signed by Bryant "effectively extinguishes that right within Mississippi's borders," they said. (Truly astonishing. A right that depends on a business operating in certain geographical borders is not a right at all, it is an operation of commerce by private parties. This makes no sense at all.)
Supporters of admitting-privileges laws say they protect women's health by ensuring that a physician who performs an abortion in a clinic would also be able to treat the patient in a hospital in case of complications.
Opponents say the requirement is unnecessary, since patients in distress are automatically treated in emergency rooms, and that it gives religious-affiliated hospitals veto power over who can work in an abortion clinic and, by extension, whether a clinic can stay open.
"Today's ruling ensures women who have decided to end a pregnancy will continue, for now, to have access to safe, legal care in their home state," Center for Reproductive Rights president Nancy Northup said Tuesday.
A different panel of the 5th Circuit, which handles cases from Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas, upheld a 2013 Texas law requiring physicians to have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles. In that March ruling, the judges said traveling fewer than 150 miles to obtain an abortion is "not an undue burden."
Even now, women from Iuka, Mississippi, in the state's northeast corner, need to drive 280 miles to reach Jackson.
The clinic remains open, using out-of-state physicians who travel to Mississippi to do abortions several times a month. For years, the clinic has had an agreement with a local physician who will meet a patient at a Jackson hospital in case of complications. Clinic owner Diane Derzis has said such complications are rare. (We know this to be false. There were 1.4 million abortions in North America in 2012, and 6% of them are considered unsafe, as reported by the Guttmacher Institute, which is the data gathering arm of Planned Parenthood. That's 84,000 unsafe abortions EACH YEAR. And 2220 women had abortions in Mississippi in 2011, so 133 were unsafe. That is not "rare" by any measure.
As an aside, 25% of those abortions are done on Hispanic women, yet they only represent 2.5% of the population. Hmm.)
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