The U.S. Supreme Court has vacated the 8th Circuit Court order blocking enforcement of a state law prohibiting abortions where Down syndrome was diagnosed in the fetus on account of its Dobbs ruling ending a right to abortion before the viability of a fetus.
Attorney General Leslie Rutledge is, naturally, crowing about the expected decision, which likely will be followed by others setting aside past court rulings against the state’s laws held unconstitutional under the Roe v. Wade precedent of nearly a half-century.
The decision is symbolic only. Arkansas is now governed by a law banning virtually all abortions, even by pills days after sex, with no exception for the health of the mother, rape victims, minors or grave fetal abnormalities.
Rutledge thinks this is “pro-life.”
She’s crowing, too, about the dismissal Monday of the lawsuit challenging Governor Hutchinson’s order in 2018 to end Medicaid for Planned Parenthood patients (not abortion, but family planning and all other medical services.) Judge Kristine Baker dismissed the request for an injunction by granting a joint motion from Planned Parenthood and the state for voluntary dismissal without prejudice. Hutchinson issued the directive to Human Services because of complaints (none arising in Arkansas) about sale of abortion tissue. The order had the effect of contributing to unwanted pregnancies and, thus, more abortions.
The Rutledge news release carried this headline:
For the record, here’s what the U.S. Supreme Court ordered as per “legal costs,” a figure not cited in the news release.
