State officials late Friday night won a temporary stay from the U.S. Supreme Court, blocking a federal judge's order requiring Missouri corrections officials to take an inmate to a St. Louis abortion clinic Saturday.
The woman, described as being in her 20s, is an inmate at the Women's Eastern Reception, Diagnostic and Correctional Center in Vandalia, 81 miles northwest of St. Louis. She is between 16 and 17 weeks pregnant. In her court filing, she said she discovered she was pregnant shortly after being arrested in California in July on a Missouri parole violation. She said she tried to get an abortion in California but was transferred back to Missouri before it could be performed.
Once in Missouri, she was told of the corrections department's policy.Corrections spokesman John Fougere said the prison system previously allowed the expense and had provided transportation and security for seven abortions since the Vandalia prison opened in December 1997. But Fougere said officials changed the policy in July after state lawmakers raised questions about it this spring.
State law specifically prohibits "any public funds to be expended for the purpose of performing or assisting an abortion, not necessary to save the life of the mother."
Adds the Missouri Attorney General, quite brilliantly and without an ounce of compassion for humankind: "It is not the prison that has imposed the burden, but the prisoner's violation of the law that resulted in her incarceration that has imposed the burden."
posted by kg @ 11:42 PM
1 comments
1 Comments:
word - throw the gauntlet as you see fit. but i still don't see why a woman in prison on a parole violation should be deprived of this right that has been decided to be constitutionally protected. true, people in prisons do not share all of the same liberties and rights as those who are not. but is it really a good thing to force this woman to have a child whom she will likely not be able to form a relationship with just because she has made some mistakes in her life and the state wants to pander to the right wingers? it seems to me that the woman involved in this case is being used as a pawn in a cultural and political debate, and her rights are being trampled in the process. gauntlet accepted.
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