The morning papers reported that a federal appeals panel has blocked a Mississippi law that would have shut the sole abortion clinic in that state by requiring its doctors to obtain admitting privileges at local hospitals.
The tactic is not a novel one as it has been used in eleven states, including Wisconsin. But wherever it is attempted a legal fight ensues. One thing is clear no matter where this law is placed on the books and that is those who are opposed to abortion are trying to shut down clinics with this maneuver.
One has to wonder how men would feel if they were asked to travel across state lines to find a doctor for a medical procedure. But if you can believe it that is exactly what Mississippi officials were telling women to do when it came to reproductive medical procedures. Let them travel to Louisiana or Tennessee was the argument that the federal court ruled against.
The federal appeals court did not take kindly to that idea, and in so ruling 2-1 has most likely set up a fight over this issue for the Supreme Court to take up in the near future. The reason the high court will get another crack at abortion is that this same appeals court gave a contradictory ruling when it came to a similar case from Texas. In that case the court ruled that the closing of some but not all clinics within a state did not present an undue burden to women seeking abortion.
In Mississippi the sole clinic remains open. In Wisconsin a ruling is expected later this summer to clarify the matter.
There is no justification, be it women in Wisconsin or in some southern state, that they should be burdened with politicians–most of them men–trying to dictate the terms of how they deal with personal medical matters.
Enough already!
CAFFEINATED POLITICS 