Mississippi’s lone abortion clinic will stay open for now, thanks to a federal judge who temporarily blocked a law that would’ve closed it down because he’s concerned that it may be unconstitutional to force women to leave the state in search of legal abortion. Ya think?
The law in question is the same kind of Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers (TRAP) bill we’ve been seeing all over the place, from North Dakota to Alabama. It requires doctors at abortion clinics to have admitting privileges at local hospitals, a tricky endeavor that’s pretty much doomed to fail in conservative states. According to the New York Times, Mississippi’s governor and several legislators didn’t even bother to disguise their hopeful glee that the bill — which advocates said was meant to protect women’s health — would lead to the closing of the Jackson Women’s Health Clinic. As all predicted, the physicians and the clinic couldn’t meet the law’s requirements. The health of women prevails!