Monday, February 4, 2013
Abortion Duh — Rapert bill is unconstitutional
Posted by Max Brantley on Mon, Feb 4, 2013 at 12:37 PM
Gov. Mike Beebe's preliminary assessment is that Sen. Jason Rapert's bill to ban most abortions (after first jamming a probe up an unwilling woman's vagina) is unconstitutional.
Duh.
This didn't require a room full of Learned Hands to reach such a conclusion. Rapert would make it a crime to provide an abortion to a woman after a fetal hearbeat had been detected, as early as 5.5 weeks.
In 1973, Roe V. Wade barred states from prohibiting abortion before viability of the fetus, then about 28 weeks. Then you had the 1993 ruling in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, which reaffirmed Roe as to, among others,
"a recognition of a woman's right to choose to have an abortion before fetal viability and to obtain it without undue interference from the State, whose previability interests are not strong enough to support an abortion prohibition or the imposition of substantial obstacles to the woman's effective right to elect the procedure;"
This 20-year-old ruling is undisturbed, too, by subsequent court rulings, in this language:
The Roe rule's limitation on state power could not be repudiated without serious inequity to people who, for two decades of economic and social developments, have organized intimate relationships and made choices that define their views of themselves and their places in society, in reliance on the availability of abortion in the event that contraception should fail. The ability of women to participate equally in the economic and social life of the Nation has been facilitated by their ability to control their reproductive lives. The Constitution serves human values, and while the effect of reliance on Roe cannot be exactly measured, neither can the certain costs of overruling Roe for people who have ordered their thinking and living around that case be dismissed.
Get it? States may not prohibit abortions pre-viability. They also may not impose "substantial obstacles" to that right. A prohibition, as Rapert proposes, fails for sure. Arguably, he fails, too, with his requirement of an unnecessary and unwanted probe of private parts. For Arkansas to try to do otherwise than what the law requires on abortion access would produce "serious inequity."
It is beyond shameful that a mere eight senators could be mustered to vote against this bill, which tramples the clear dictates of law. It is 1957 and interposition all over again, based on a demagogue's wish that abortion could be outlawed. Pass now, pay legal fees later.
ALSO: Gene Lyons suggests, rightly I think, that passage of Rapert's bill also could trigger wrongful death investigations of miscarriages. A miscarriage of a fetus older than six weeks would require the state to find out whether it was induced without required heatbeat test, wouldn't it?
Speaking of...
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Practicing law with Bro. Rapert
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Judge Wright issues injunction against abortion law
May 17, 2013The word from the federal courthouse is that federal Judge Susan Webber Wright has issued a preliminary injunction against enforcement of the new Arkansas law that was meant to bar most abortions at the 12th week of pregnancy. /more/
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The 2013 legislature closes quietly
May 17, 2013The House and Senate convened briefly this morning and adjourned the 2013 General Assembly sine die. /more/
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Women's rights in court this morning
May 17, 2013Leslie Newell Peacock will be in federal court for us this morning for the preliminary injunction hearing on the lawsuit challenging the new state law prohibiting most abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy. /more/
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The death and taxes open line
May 16, 2013The line is open. Closing out: * THERE THE GOP GOES AGAIN: The Arkansas Republican Party is in all-out assault mode on U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor, today pounding him for saying seven years ago that he supported permanent repeal of the estate tax (dishonestly called a "death tax" by the Republicans) but joining in recent bipartisan approval of what is now a dramatically lower estate tax. /more/
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Guns and fetuses: A legislative review
May 16, 2013Crazy Davy Carter, the House speaker who is a potential Republican candidate for governor, won headlines all over today for remarks at a legislative conference in Hot Springs that Republicans need to move beyond guns and abortion to focus on issues more important to average Arkies. /more/
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Judge refuses to dismiss suit challenging new 12-week abortion limit
May 15, 2013Federal Judge Susan Webber Wright has denied the state of Arkansas's motion to dismiss the ACLU-backed lawsuit challenging the new state law, passed over Gov. Mike Beebe's veto, to prevent most abortions after the 12th week of pregnancy. /more/
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Morning report: Prescription drug watch
May 13, 2013The morning again begins slowly. But among others: * MONITORING DOCTORS' PRESCRIPTION PRACTICES: Pro Publica has published with the Washington Post a deep look at doctors' prescription practices under Medicare. /more/
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Block that cliche: Beebe on the 2014 race for governor
May 9, 2013Channel 4 has posted an interview with Gov. Mike Beebe on the race to succeed him in 2014: Variously, he said: * It will be a "donnybrook." /more/
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David Stewart to fill Fayetteville judge seat
May 9, 2013David Stewart, retired director of the state Judicial Discipline and Disability Commission and a former municipal judge in Little Rock, has been appointed by Gov. Mike Beebe to serve as Washington County District Court judge in Fayetteville until a successor can be elected to replace the late Rudy Moore Jr., who died last month. /more/
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