Bright spot ‘o the day
by digby
This may not seem like much, but it’s actually a big deal:
A bright spot in the recent spate of body blows to reproductive rights: the Supreme Court has affirmed the unconstitutionality of Oklahoma’s absolute ban on medication abortion, dismissing the state’s appeal of the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruling striking down the law and ending a long legal battle over women’s access to medication abortion and the non-surgical treatment of ectopic pregnancies in the state.
Rh Reality Check legal analysis:
The Supreme Court had earlier agreed to hear Cline v. Oklahoma Coalition for Reproductive Justice but sent the case back to the Oklahoma Supreme Court to answer what it saw as two questions of state law first. Those questions both addressed the scope of Oklahoma’s restrictions on medication abortion, including whether the law bans all abortions induced by medication and whether it also bans the preferred treatment for ectopic pregnancies. Last Tuesday, the Oklahoma Supreme Court definitively ruled that the law does outlaw all abortion medication, including those methods of terminating a pregnancy specifically approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
The Robert Court’s order does not explain the justices’ reasoning for dismissing the challenge, only that it was “dismissed as improvidently granted.” And by declining to keep the case, the Supreme Court has, for now, signaled its unwillingness to look at state laws that ban specific abortion procedures that have been approved by the federal government.
That’s a good thing. Unfortunately, it doesn’t mean they’ve rejected the anti-abortion zealots’ preferred strategy of chipping away incrementally at a woman’s right to control her own body:
[T]he ruling does not answer whether the Supreme Court will weigh in on the narrower question, raised in states like Texas and Ohio, as to whether other specific medication abortion bans that target procedures not approved by the FDA are constitutional. So far, a divided federal appeals court has upheld an Ohio law that severely restricts medication abortions, and the issue is currently before the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, following a lawsuit over the medication abortion regulations in Texas’ HB 2, that state’s massive anti-choice omnibus bill.
Still, this is an unambiguously good outcome for women all over the nation. Medical abortion was always seen as a way of empowering women to avoid the many roadblocks the anti-abortion zealots have set up over the years.
I’m frankly surprised this court decided to let this one go. I assume the anti-abortion members see better opportunities on the horizon to deny women their rights.
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