ACLU Applauds Decision Allowing Women Prisoners in Missouri to Access Abortion Care
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Tony Rothert, (314) 361-2111
July
18, 2006-- ST LOUIS – The American Civil Liberties Union of Eastern
Missouri today applauded a decision by a district court in Missouri
allowing women prisoners in that state to access timely, safe, and
legal abortion care. “Prison officials can no longer ignore the
medical needs of women prisoners seeking abortions,” said Brenda Jones,
executive director of the ACLU of Eastern Missouri. “We applaud the
court for recognizing that women do not give up their right to abortion
care when they enter prison.”
For more than seven weeks
in 2005, prison officials went to extreme lengths to deny a woman
prisoner access to abortion care, and even went as far as appealing her
case to the U.S. Supreme Court. On October 17th, at the ACLU’s urging,
the Supreme Court refused to block the lower court’s decision requiring
the state to transport the woman to a nearby health care facility for
an abortion.
Following this decision, in October 2005, the
ACLU asked the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri
to make the case a class action lawsuit on behalf of all incarcerated
pregnant women seeking access to abortion care.
According
to today’s decision, women prisoners do not lose their constitutional
right to abortion care. And as with all other serious medical needs,
including abortion, prison officials must transport prisoners offsite
for treatment if necessary.
“Missouri’s total ban on
abortion for prisoners ran contrary to its own long-standing policy and
posed an absolute bar on a woman’s right to abortion care,” said
Anthony Rothert, Legal Director of the ACLU of Eastern Missouri.
“Moreover, its refusal stood in stark contrast to its policy to provide
women prisoners with all other pregnancy related health care.”
Today’s
case is Roe v. Crawford, et al., No. 05-4333-CV-C-DW. Lawyers on the
case include Diane Kasdan, Chakshu Patel, Talcott Camp, and Jennifer
Nevins of the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project, and Thomas M.
Blumenthal and James G. Felakos, cooperating counsel for the ACLU of
Eastern Missouri.
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