Supreme Court Clears the Way for Controversial Arkansas Law Restricting Medication Abortion
The US Supreme Court has just cleared the way for Arkansas to implement a new restriction on abortion pills and drugs. Critics have challenged the controversial law, pointing out that the new policy might as well be a ban on medicated abortion in the state.
With the Supreme Court rejecting the latest challenge to the Arkansas law, the way is now clear for the state to put into effect a policy that will require any physician who "gives, sells, dispenses, administers, or otherwise provides or prescribes the abortion-inducing drug" to have a contract with another physician with admitting privileges in a nearby hospital.
That contracted physician would also have to agree to handle complications related to the abortion attempt, as ABC 7 noted. The Supreme Cout order was issued without comment, as well, and the justices did not offer an opinion on the legality of the Arkansas law.
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With this decision, the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the court order preventing enforcement of the law.
The law was passed back in 2015, as CNN noted. After the challenge to the bill has been rejected, the law is now in the clear to take effect by the middle of July barring any other legal action taken in the meantime. That's why, on late Tuesday night, the nonprofit group Planned Parenthood took to the district court to ask for a temporary restraining order to block the law from going into effect.
According to Planned Parenthood, the new law means that women in Arkansas will not have access to at least two drugs commonly used to abort pregnancies. Misoprostol, which induces a rejection similar to a miscarriage, and Mifepristone, which inhibits the fetus from attaching to the uterine lining, will now be restricted.
These drugs, given out as pills to end pregnancies, are also offered by Planned Parenthood at clinics in Arkansas including Fayetteville and Little Rock. Now, their problem is that they would not be able to find an obstetrician in Arkansas willing to deal with hospital admissions and possible complications.
According to lawyers for Arkansas, this law is a "commonsense requirement" that will ensure follow-up treatment as needed for women who plan on taking abortion drugs. "Protecting the health and well-being of women and the unborn will always be a priority," Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge said.
"Arkansas is now shamefully responsible for being the first state to ban medication abortion," Planned Parenthood Executive Vice President Dawn Laguens said in a statement, calling the law "dangerous."
Laguens went on to say that the new policy effectively cuts off access to "safe, legal abortion" at all but one health center in Arkansas. " If that's not an undue burden, what is? This law cannot and must not stand. We will not stop fighting for every person's right to access safe, legal abortion," she added.
