Federal judge blocks Mississippi anti-abortion law

Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant / AP Photo

(AP) JACKSON, Miss. - A federal judge on Sunday temporarily blocked enforcement of a Mississippi law that could shut down the only abortion clinic in the state.

U.S. District Judge Daniel P. Jordan in Jackson issued a temporary restraining order the day the new law took effect.

He set a July 11 hearing to determine whether to block the law for a longer time.

"Though the debate over abortion continues, there exists legal precedent the court must follow," Jordan wrote.

The law requires anyone performing abortions at the state's only clinic to be an OB-GYN with privileges to admit patients to a local hospital. Such privileges can be difficult to obtain, and the clinic contends the mandate is designed to put it out of business. A clinic spokeswoman, Betty Thompson, has said the two physicians who do abortions there are OB-GYNs who travel from other states.

The clinic, Jackson Women's Health Organization, filed a lawsuit seeking to block it. The suit says the admitting privileges requirement is not medically necessary and is designed to put the clinic out of business.

If Jackson Women's Health Organization closes, Mississippi would be the only state without an abortion clinic.

Republican Gov. Phil Bryant has said repeatedly he wants Mississippi to be abortion-free. Bryant spokesman Mick Bullock was preparing a response Sunday night to the judge's decision to issue a temporary restraining order.

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In the order, Jordan wrote: "Plaintiffs have offered evidence — including quotes from significant legislative and executive officers — that the Act's purpose is to eliminate abortions in Mississippi. They likewise submitted evidence that no safety or health concerns motivated its passage. This evidence has not yet been rebutted."

Jordan also wrote that Jackson Women's Health Organization is "the only regular provider of abortions in Mississippi, and as of the Act's effective date, JWHO cannot comply with its requirements."

The Center for Reproductive Rights, based in New York, helped file the lawsuit for the Mississippi clinic. The center's president and CEO, Nancy Northup, said in statement Sunday: "Today's decision reaffirms the fundamental constitutional rights of women in Mississippi and ensures the Jackson Women's Health Organization can continue providing the critical reproductive health care that they have offered to women for the last 17 years.

"The opponents of reproductive rights in the Mississippi legislature have made no secret of their intent to make legal abortion virtually disappear in the state of Mississippi," Northup said. "Their hostility toward women, reproductive health care providers, and the rights of both would unquestionably put the lives and health of countless women at risk of grave harm."

Mississippi physicians who perform fewer than 10 abortions a month can avoid having their offices regulated as an abortion clinic, and thus avoid restrictions in the new law. The Health Department said it doesn't have a record of how many physicians perform fewer than 10 abortions a month. Clinic operators say almost all the abortions in the state are done in their building.

The clinic says if it closes, most women would have to go out of state to terminate a pregnancy — something that could create financial problems for people in one of the poorest states in the nation. From Jackson, it's about a 200-mile drive to clinics in New Orleans; Mobile, Ala.; or Memphis, Tenn.

[scottpatrick1234]

A woman/couple paying a doctor to kill their unborn child is a crime against humanity. It should be illegal.

[hypnotoad72]

Lots of things should be illegal...

Wake me when our economy and society are restructured from profit-based to ethics-based philosophies... ;-)

[ammo17]

when japan and the nazi`s did this in ww2,it was a war crime.but now in this country it is legal.why?

[knewsteerrrrr]

Cause this jezus guy stands by and lets it happen, knowing long before that it would, so obviously he approves of his own effects.

[Jhihmoac]

Oh well, I guess if you get a woman knocked up in Miss, you'd better set your mind on stayin' close to her...

[knewsteerrrrr]

or walking to another country, or quietly making her vanish in the night, never to be seen again.

[cbs_tom]

Umm...yeah, that's called taking responsibility for ones' own action. Destroying the baby would be otherwise.

[gjc1n1]

It boils down to ignorance and bigotry. Ignorance on the part of the citizens who don't vote or know how to vote for people who represent their interests and bigotry on the part of the public officials in MIssissippi, the latter which requires no explanation.

[Nocults]

Correlation between stoooooopid and imposition of Sharia law by right wing, fundamentalist, Christian Taliban?????????????

Education rankings

Far Below Average
42 Oklahoma 2.01
43 Nebraska 1.97
44 Nevada 1.93
45 Arizona 1.91
46 New Mexico 1.72
47 Alabama 1.60
48 Louisiana 1.59
49 West Virginia 1.58
50 Mississippi 1.11


National Average -- -- 2.82

[KPeters_from_UK]

Do these self-righteous GOP believe they have the right to ignore certain laws of their choosing? Scott, down in Florida has threaten to ignore Obamacare, then there is Perry in Texas and now this a$$. How about I refuse to pay my American taxes to the military?

[marychgo]

Gee, WordsLive, since you keep telling us that half the population of Mississippi is African American, why don't you tell us what percentage of Mississippi's African American citizenss voted for the state's Republican Governor or Republican Senator(s)?

[marychgo]

I'm guessing 10 or 20 percent....

[Nocults]

Blacks aren't allowed to vote in Mississippi.

If they do vote, their vote is disqualified.

[ugacrew]

knewsteerrrrr,

I guess you've never heard of "complications?" They do happen and can result in a loss of life before a woman or baby can make it safely to the hospital.

[KPeters_from_UK]

Child birth is so much more difficult and complications occur in greater numbers in child birth. Abortion in comparison is by far safer. I have yet to hear of woman losing her life due to an abortion. I did do some research on google and found a lot of extreme Pro-Life sites that cry cover-up and all that crap. These sites still, even very recent ones still perpetuate the myth that abortion leads to suicide and mental problems when it is simply not true. It is a fabricated disorder created in 1981 by Vincent Rue, a pro-life advocate..one man who thinks he understands the female mind. On the other hand, for example, the American Psychological Association update their findings and said there is no evidence to support the pro-life stance or mental trauma and abortion.

[joyeamyers]

Why would anyone want to have a major surgery(and an abortion is surgery)by a dr that didn't have admiting priveledges to a hospital? I worked in a hospital emergency room for a year and people would be shocked at how many times an abortion has something go wrong.
Would you let your child have their tosils taken out by a dr. who didn't have admiting priviledges?

[Former_Marine_Sgt]

1) because religious hospitals and hospitals run by religiously intolerant people will PREVENT doctors who do abortions from having privileges at thier hospitals.
2) because MANY doctors don't have these privileges.
3) It's not 'admitting priviliges' it's privileges to perform procedures within the hospital.

And of course when they DON'T require it of many other procedures performed by doctors in thier offices that have the exact same or even greater risks of complications - it's legally defined as arbitrary and capricious use of the law to illegally enforce a moral position. AND THAT IS WRONG AND UNCONSTITUTIONAL IN ALL CASES.

Let's see - getting lasik surgery on your eyese or liposuction are just as dangerous or more so than most abortions - yet you don't have to have 'admitting priviledges' to perform those procedures (heck - in some states you don't even have to be a trained on liposuction cosmetic surgeon to perform lipo on people.

[matt6052]

Seems to me the conservatives are mistakenly steering a legal battle in the direction of local hospital administration.

Who wants a federal judge telling any hospital who they must grant admitting privieges to?

[D-Waarheid]

Ah yes, butchering unborn babies, homosexuality, same sex marriage, pornography, etc,
the "progression" of the "educated " .

And you wonder why America is plagued with debt, drought, drugs , disease, heat , floods, storms, etc, !

[ugacrew]

I am one of the few people who think exactly as you do, surprisingly.

[marychgo]

No, D-Waarheid, I DON'T wonder why.

DEBT: Two unfunded wars, huge tax cuts for the richest 1%, and a near-depression caused by an out-of-control financial sector. DRUGS: Culture dominated by the richest Americans; few opportunitites for anyone else.
DISEASE: Underfunding of health care and epidemiology.
DROUGHT, HEAT, FLOODS, STORMS, etc.: Climate change fueled by corporations that won't take responsibility for the externalities caused by their profit-making activities.

I don't see ANY connection between any of those things and "butchering unborn babies, homosexuality, same sex marriage, pornography, etc."