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US Supreme Court Allows Abortion for Prisoner

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (LifeSiteNews.com) – The US Supreme Court confirmed a lower court order granting a Missouri prisoner access to an abortion, despite a law that forbids state funds from being used to pay for the procedure. The Supreme Court decision was published without comment

Justice Clarence Thomas, acting alone, temporarily stayed the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals order Friday. Today the court ruled to grant the woman’s request, despite the opposition of Missouri’s governor and attorney general.

The unidentified woman, now at Vandalia women’s prison, who was arrested in California for parole violation, claimed she would have aborted the child there had she not been caught. She is between 16 and 17 weeks pregnant.

Gov. Matt Blunt blasted US District Judge Dean Whipple after he ruled earlier Friday that he would not grant the state’s appeal. “This is an outrageous order from an activist federal judge that offends Missouri values,” he said in a statement. “I call on the attorney general to vigorously pursue all available legal options to overturn this offensive federal mandate. It is time for him to aggressively argue that this is an inappropriate use of taxpayer resources and contrary to state law.” Blunt added his disappointment over the Supreme Court ruling, saying the decision “is highly offensive to traditional Missouri values and is contrary to state law, which prohibits taxpayer dollars from being spent to facilitate abortions.”

Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon’s office, responding to Whipple’s claim that the state was imposing an undue burden on the woman by refusing to allow her to have the abortion, stated, “It is not the prison that has imposed the burden, but the prisoner's violation of the law that resulted in her incarceration that has imposed the burden.”

Missouri law prohibits “any public funds to be expended for the purpose of performing or assisting an abortion, not necessary to save the life of the mother,” according to an AP report.

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