U.S. appeals court rules against Wisconsin abortion doctor law

[Little Tich]

Source: Yahoo! News / Reuters

(Reuters) - A Wisconsin law requiring doctors who perform abortions to have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital is unconstitutional, a U.S. appeals court ruled on Monday, addressing a topic the U.S. Supreme Court is considering during its current term.

Abortion providers in Wisconsin had challenged the state law, which requires doctors to have privileges at a hospital within 30 miles (50 km). The law's supporters said the measure ensures continuity of care while opponents say it serves almost no public health value and is intended to shut clinics.

A federal judge in March permanently blocked the Wisconsin law, ruling that the health benefits, if any, were outweighed by the burden on women's health caused by restricted access to abortion.

The U.S. Supreme Court earlier in November agreed to take up a major abortion case for the first time since 2007. In that case, Texas abortion providers are challenging state requirements that they have admitting privileges and costly hospital-grade surgical facilities.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/u-appeals-court-rules-against-wisconsin-abortion-doctor-000815313.html

[niyad]

1. one tiny victory for women

[AllyCat]

2. Finally some good news for Wisconsin

[truthisfreedom]

3. Wow! Good news!

I'm so sick of bad news.

[Massacure]

4. So out of curiosity, how difficult of a requirement is this?

I understand the argument that requiring abortion facilities to be built like surgical centers costs millions of dollars, which is an expense most clinics could not afford and thus an undue burden. However, if a doctor performing abortions at a nearby clinic asked a hospital for admitting privileges, what are the odds that a hospital would turn him or her down? Realistically, a doctor would probably only exercise that right a few handful of times over the course of his career, it's not like the Hospital needs to reserve multiple beds.

[cstanleytech]

5. If the goal was honestly to protect women I might buy it but the only reason this is being done

is to try and shutdown as many clinics as they can that perform abortions in order to stop women from getting constitutional protected abortions if they need and or want one.
You want something as risky or far more so? Try a dentist because they dont have admitting privileges.

[Still In Wisconsin]

6. Truthfully, they knew this would happen.

This was put forth to help cement Walker's bona fides with conservative Iowa voters.

I guess it didn't work, seeing as how Walker soared all the way to the stratospheric height of * in the last poll before he dropped.

[riversedge]

7. Yes, I remember that/those articles. He knew yet pushed it.