WaPo reported Issuing its first abortion-related decision under new Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., the Supreme Court refused yesterday to block the court-ordered transport of a female prison inmate to an outside clinic for an abortion.... Still, the order does suggest that, under Roberts, a majority of the court was not inclined to rush into a new abortion battle,
If the court was going to rush into a new abortion battle I think it would have picked a better case than this one, and besides all that has changed is that Roberts replaced Rheinquist, who voted against abortion cases.even when implored to do so by a state where the anti-abortion movement is particularly strong.... But the state had a heavy legal burden: to show that it would face "irreparable harm" if it had to transport the woman. The state said that it would lose the $350 cost of a day's prison guard salaries, as well as run the risk of an escape or injury to the prisoner, public or guards.... Missouri's Department of Corrections put the new policy into effect July 19, in response to criticism from antiabortion state legislators, state officials said. The legislators had said that the use of state-paid guards and vehicles to transport a prisoner to an abortion clinic violated the state's abortion law, which says that "no state money, employees in the course of their employment, or facilities are to be used for abortions except abortions performed to save a woman's life." Also under the law, which was adopted in 1986, no state money, employees, or facilities are to be used "for the purpose of encouraging or counseling a woman to have an abortion not necessary to save her life."
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