Sunday Focus: Is the Goal Women's Health or to Stop Abortions?

    

Montgomery Federal Court Building Drawings

A Federal Judge has heard from both sides in a challenge to a new Alabama law requiring abortion clinics to have admitting privileges at local hospitals. That's been blocked by a temporary restraining order from the judge considering the case in Montgomery.
     The suit against the law was filed by The American Civil Liberties Union and Planned Parenthood:

"This law is part of a nationwide plan to shut down women’s health centers and prevent a woman from making her own decision about whether to have an abortion," said Alexa Kolbi-Molinas, staff attorney at  the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project. "You have to ask yourself, if these laws are really about protecting a patient’s health, why do they apply only to doctors who provide abortions and not to doctors who provide medically comparable care?"

                                                                         (From the ACLU website)

     I haven't heard a reply to that argument.  
     And there's already a federal law that requires hospitals to accept patients in an emergency, with no restriction about who their physician is, or whether he or she has admitting privileges or any relationship with the hospital. 
     The judge says he'll rule on the challenge by the and of March, when his TRO ends.


[Sunday Focus is a regular feature of TimLennox.com]