By the time you read this edition of TN&V, a Missouri prison inmate may have already have aborted her child, an outcome made possible by a Missouri judge who ordered her transport to an outside clinic for an abortion.

 

Last Friday, Supreme Justice Clarence Thomas temporarily blocked the order which had been issued October 13. However, three days later, the full High Court refused the state's request to stay U.S. District Judge Dean Whipple's order requiring that the inmate “Jane Roe” be taken to a St. Louis abortion clinic.

 

There was no published opinion or recorded dissent to accompany the brief order, so there is no way to tell how many justices, if any, may have voted against the order. It would have required the votes of five justices to grant Missouri’s request for a stay. Justice O’Connor is currently serving until her replacement is confirmed by the Senate.

 

In his original ruling, Whipple said, "The law is now well established that federal courts have declared that a woman has a constitutional right to choose to terminate a pregnancy rather than carry the pregnancy to term." He added, “It is also clearly established that these rights of the woman survive incarceration."

 

On Monday Whipple modified his order so that the state is now required to transport the woman to get an abortion by Friday. The ACLU is representing the woman, who is facing a four-year prison term, after being picked up on a parole violation, reports  columnist Lyle Denniston.

 

According to various newspaper accounts, the woman is in her 16th or 17th week and discovered she was pregnant after being arrested in California. She was transferred to a woman’s prison in Vandalia, Missouri, before an abortion could be performed.

 

In their filing with Justice Thomas, attorneys for the state asked him to give "heavy consideration" to the state’s  policy of "discourag[ing] abortions and encourag[ing] childbirth." according to the Washington Post.

 

The Post wrote that Missouri's Department of Corrections changed its policy on July 19. “The [Missouri state] legislators had said that the use of state-paid guards and vehicles to transport a prisoner to an abortion clinic violated the state's abortion law, which says that ‘no state money, employees in the course of their employment, or facilities are to be used for abortions except abortions performed to save a woman's life,’" according to the Post’s Charles Lane.

 

According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch the woman said she would borrow money for the abortion itself but couldn’t afford transportation costs. In addition to taking “Jane Roe” to a St. Louis Planned Parenthood clinic, Whipple ordered the state to pay for the actual cost of the fuel plus the two guards who will accompany her.

 

Whipple will hear arguments later this fall whether this ruling applies only to “Jane Roe” or to the corrections department policy itself.

 

Please send any comments to me at dandrusko@nrlc.org

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