US appeals court says Missouri can enforce abortion laws

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A federal appeals court on Monday cleared the way for Missouri to enforce state laws requiring doctors who perform abortions to be affiliated with hospitals and abortion clinics to be licensed as ambulatory surgical centers.

The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis overturned a 2017 ruling that blocked enforcement of those laws and opened the door for more abortion providers to operate in the state, which at the time had only one.

Monday’s decision comes in a 2016 lawsuit filed by affiliates of the women’s health organization Planned Parenthood in the wake of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that year that struck down similar abortion restrictions in Texas.

The Missouri laws require doctors who perform abortions to have admitting privileges at local hospitals, which can be difficult to obtain, and for abortion clinics to have costly hospital-grade facilities to be licensed as ambulatory surgical centers.

The court said it did not have enough information to determine how easily abortion clinics could obtain waivers from the licensing rules and whether those requirements posed an undue burden on clinics.

U.S. Circuit Judge Bobby Shepherd, who wrote the opinion, said the lower-court judge also erred by not considering the state’s arguments about the benefits of the provision requiring doctors who perform abortions be affiliated with hospitals.

“Invoking the Constitution to enjoin the laws of a state requires more than ‘slight implication and vague conjecture,’” Shepherd wrote. “At a minimum, it requires adequate information and correct application of the relevant standard.”

The lawsuit was filed by Comprehensive Health of Planned Parenthood Great Plains and Reproductive Health Services of Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region.

Planned Parenthood in a statement said the ruling threatens to shut down abortion services at one of Missouri’s two clinics that can provide it.

Missouri’s attorney general did not respond to a request for comment.

Abortion and the landmark 1973 ruling Roe v. Wade that legalized the procedure have been a central issue in the U.S. Senate confirmation process for Republican President Donald Trump’s U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.

Some states are passing restrictive abortion laws in anticipation they will be upheld by an increasingly conservative Supreme Court.

“Look no farther than Missouri to see what kind of harm courts can inflict on women’s rights and freedoms,” Dawn Laguens, executive vice president, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said in a statement.
https://www.rawstory.com/2018/09/us-app ... tion-laws/

If Kavanaugh is confirmed, this is a setup for a test of Roe vs. Wade since similar laws Texas were thrown out by the SCOTUS.
Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.-Huxley
"We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both." ~ Louis Brandeis,

Re: US appeals court says Missouri can enforce abortion laws

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Kavanaugh will get confirmed, unless he should happen to walk off a cliff. If that happened someone equally objectionable would be nominated. And Democratic senators in red states up for election will probably vote for him.

Getting admitting privileges looks like a very arbitrary process. Physicians or hospital trustees in the area could object possibly on religious grounds that they don't want anyone doing abortions practicing at their hospital.
https://www.semissourian.com/story/1157587.html
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts." - Daniel Patrick Moynihan

Re: US appeals court says Missouri can enforce abortion laws

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The weird thing is, if Susan Collins votes to confirm Kavanaugh, she's toast in 2020, because Maine is strongly pro-choice.
Lisa Murkowsky who has till 2022, will be toast because Kavanaugh has written against Native American peoples who have been CRITICAL to her write-in election.
A lower court (potential) judge who wrote nearly the identical thing that Kavanaugh did, was then nixed by the only Black Republican Senator, Tim Scott, who was seconded in that by...Marco Rubio.

But since EVERY Republican is a self-serving, cowardly hypocrite, I expect them all to vote to confirm fearing Trump's wrath more than their own voters.
"Even if the bee could explain to the fly why pollen is better than shit, the fly could never understand."

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