BIRMINGHAM, AL, July 24, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A federal judge has delayed an Alabama law that would require abortionists to be able to admit women to local hospitals in the event of a botched abortion.
U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson declared on Tuesday that the Alabama's Women's Health Safety Act – which was scheduled to take effect on August 15 – will not go into effect until March 24, 2014. Judge Thompson was appointed to the federal bench by Jimmy Carter in 1980.
The Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Planned Parenthood Southeast, the ACLU, Reproductive Health Services, and a nurse had challenged the law, claimimg that it deprived women of “essential care” like abortion.
“In some cases, women will be unable to obtain abortions altogether because of the loss of abortion services,” according to a lawsuit.
Gov. Robert Bentley signed the bill, which passed on April 9, after a spate of botched abortions that landed Alabamians in the hospital.
One woman, Roberta Clark, contends that she had to have a ruptured falloptian tube removed in September 2010 following a botched abortion at the Birmingham Planned Parenthood, rendering her infertile.
Paramedics transported two women on the same day from the New Women All Women abortion facility in South Birmingham following botched procedures in January 2012. Medics had to carry the women to hospital gurneys in the alley, because the entrance was not accessible.
The ACLU filed the lawsuit on June 11 on behalf of the state abortion industry, calling the health measues “medically unnecessary” and “completely irrelevant” before candidly admitting their plaintiffs “cannot comply with the staff privileges requirement.”
“Abortion is one of the safest surgical procedures,” it states.
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Proponents of the law were disappointed by the abortionists' reluctance to improve medical conditions for the state's women, particularly given their invocation of “women's rights.”
“I am surprised they are filing lawsuits instead of bringing the clinics up to code,” said Alabama State Representative Mary Sue McClurkin, a Republican.
Dangerous abortions around the country have made states require that someone in the office be able to admit potential victims to a nearby hospital or medical facility – and provoked a litigious backlash from the industry. Earlier this month, a federal judge halted the implementation of a similar law signed by Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker.
A similar bill in Mississippi could close that state's last abortion provider's doors. Texas, North Dakota, and Ohio have also enacted such a mandate within the last few months.