Judges Block Abortion Curb in Mississippi

JUDGES BLOCK ABORTION CURB IN MISSISSIPPI, by Campbell Robertson and Eric, Eckholm of the New York Times

I've included a truncated version of the above article. My comments and summary are indented in parenthesis. If this proves confusing, I've included a link to the my original blog post at the bottom.

(Finally some good news in the women's abortion rights fight.)

"A federal appeals panel on Tuesday blocked a Mississippi law that would have shut the sole abortion clinic in the state by requiring its doctors to obtain admitting privileges at local hospitals, something they had been unable to do."

(Since the two doctors who run the last Mississippi clinic are not local to Jackson, where the clinic is located; and because abortion medical emergencies are so rare, the doctors could not reach the necessary threshold to be granted admission privileges in any of the seven hospitals local to the Jackson area. The whole issue is moot anyway since an emergency patient would be admitted to any hospital no matter where the emergency originated--whether in an abortion clinic, on a highway or in the patient's own backyard.)

"By a 2-to-1 vote, the panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled that by imposing a law that would effectively end abortion in the state, Mississippi would illegally shift its constitutional obligations to neighboring states...

...'A state cannot lean on its sovereign neighbors to provide protection of its citizens' federal constitutional rights,' Judge E. Grady Jolly wrote.

'Pre-viability, a woman has the constitutional right to end her pregnancy by abortion,' he continued. This law 'effectively extinguishes that right within Mississippi's borders.'

Mississippi officials had argued that women seeking abortions could always drive to neighboring states...to obtain the procedure, an argument the panel rejected."

(The state's argument that abortions were still available in nearby states was presented by Paul E. Barnes, a member of the Mississippi attorney general's office. The judges pointed out that similar laws are being challenged in Louisiana and Alabama and their passage would mean that the state could not claim that women would always be able to rely on neighboring states for abortion services. This possibility was again raised in a footnote to Tuesday's decision.)

"The decision did not overturn the Mississippi law or explore whether the admitting-privilege requirement was justified on safety grounds. Rather, the panel said, the law could not be used to close the sole clinic in the state...

...Laurence H. Tribe, a professor of constitutional law at Harvard, said that the principle of state responsibility enunciated by the circuit court 'is deeply established and fully entrenched.'

'It goes not only to the issue of reproductive freedom but to the very character of the federal union,' he said."

"Mississippi officials did not say whether the state would appeal...

...State Representative Sam C. Mims, who was the chief sponsor of the law, expressed disappointment with the ruling, saying that the decision reflected a misinterpretation of its purpose.

'Abortion is still legal throughout the nation and, of course, still legal in Mississippi,' he said. 'This legislation did not deal with that; it only dealt with the regulation of abortion clinics.'"

(Does Mr. Mims (R) think women are that stupid? He says abortion is "still legal in Mississippi" and he was just trying to deal with the "regulation of abortion clinics." Mr. Mims expects women to believe that the closing of all those clinics as a result of his regulations was just a little unintended hiccup. He isn't really trying to outlaw abortion, honest. Yeah, right.
As Mr. Tribe explained, no state can arbitrarily opt-out of a federal law while still remaining a part of that union...no matter how you distort or attempt to conceal your purposes.)

"In March, a panel from the same appeals court, composed of different judges, upheld a Texas law requiring admitting privileges, ruling that the closing of some but not all clinics within a state did not present an undue burden to women seeking abortion...

...While the Texas and Mississippi laws were nearly identical, the judges found that the effect in Mississippi, with a single clinic, made the law there...constitutionally distinct from the one in Texas...

...Politicians at the time of the law's passage, including the governor, welcomed the closing as a likely outcome."

(But remember, they weren't really trying to get to that result. Really! Gosh! We were jus' thinkin' about the li'l ladies in our li'l ol' state of Mississip and how they need pertectin' an' all. Twist it anyway you like, a woman's right to legal and safe abortion is a United States law, and as citizens of the United States, woman are protected by those laws...even in Mississippi.)

Original blog post here: http://whateyethynk-politics.blogspot.com/2014/07/eye-recommend-judges-block-abortion.html