Supreme Court Rejects to Challenge to Arkansas Law Restricting Medication Abortion
Abortion is legal in all U.S. states, and every state has at least one abortion clinic. However, individual states can regulate or limit the use of abortion or create “trigger laws.” These would make abortion illegal within the first and second trimesters if Roe were overturned by the US Supreme Court.
For example, abortion in Georgia is legal on request within the first 12 weeks of pregnancy but may be performed between 12 and 22 weeks on medical grounds under conditions established by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Social Affairs. However, in California, the cutoff is 8 weeks for a medicated abortion.
In Arkansas however, there has been a controversial law in place for years. This has been under review in the U.S Supreme Court.
The law applies to medication abortions, which do not require surgery and are only available in the early stages of pregnancy. It is a fairly simple procedure in which the patient is given a pill in a doctor’s office. A few days later, the patient takes a second one at home. The Supreme court declined to consider whether the law restricting this procedure and access to medication abortions was unconstitutional because Planned Parenthood believed it would inhibit a woman’s access to abortion services as a whole.
By rejecting to consider this, the Supreme Court Justices have allowed for a possible complete block of the medication abortions in the state of Arkansas.
With most of the justices being pro-life, it is unfair and biased toward the decision made. “Arkansas is now shamefully responsible for being the first state to ban medication abortion,” Dawn Laguens of Planned Parenthood stated.
Just recently there have been large protests in Northern Ireland about this topic. Crowds called for a change to abortion laws in the North, where abortion is illegal except in cases where the woman’s life or health is at risk. Though it is not only in America where abortion is a controversial issue. People are getting up and doing something about it across the globe. The rejection of declining this law goes to show that abortion is at stake in America. We cannot take away the one thing guaranteed to women in this society: their choice.
Technically, the legal fight is not over, but the state is free to enforce this law. Planned Parenthood has sued to block the law. “This law cannot and must not stand. We will not stop fighting for every person’s right to access safe, legal abortion,” said Laguens.
Featured Image via Wikimedia Commons
