Supreme Court allows Arkansas to enforce abortion restrictions
Labor & Employment
The Supreme Court is allowing Arkansas to put into effect restrictions on how abortion pills are administered. Critics of a challenged state
law say it could effectively end medication abortions in the state.
The justices did not comment Tuesday in rejecting an appeal from the Planned Parenthood affiliate in Arkansas that asked the court to
review an appeals court ruling and reinstate a lower court order that had blocked the law from taking effect. The law says doctors who
provide abortion pills must hold a contract with another physician who has admitting privileges at a hospital and who would agree to
handle complications.
The law is similar to a provision in Texas law that the Supreme Court struck down in 2016. The U.S. 8th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed
the court order barring enforcement of the law, but put its ruling on hold while Planned Parenthood appealed to the Supreme Court.
The legal fight over the law is not over, but the state is now free to enforce it, at least for the time being. Planned Parenthood has said
that if the law stands, Arkansas would be the only state where women would not have access to a pair of drugs that end pregnancies:
mifepristone, which makes it difficult for a fetus to attach to the uterine wall, and misoprostol, which causes the body to expel it, similar
to a miscarriage.
The organization offers pills to end pregnancies at clinics in Fayetteville and Little Rock but says it cannot find any Arkansas obstetrician
willing to handle hospital admissions. Preventing women from obtaining medication abortions would create an undue burden on their right
to an abortion, Planned Parenthood says. Undue burden is the standard set by the Supreme Court to measure whether restrictions go too
far in limiting women who want an abortion.
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