MADISON, Wis., Nov. 24 (UPI) ─ A Wisconsin law requiring abortion doctors to obtain hospital admitting privileges was ruled unconstitutional by a federal appeals court.
In a 2-1 ruling, Chicago’s 7th Circuit Court of Appeals agreed Monday with a lower court that a provision of Wisconsin’s abortion law offered a “non-existent” health benefit and “cannot be taken seriously as a measure to improve women’s health.” The law required doctors who provide abortions to have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of the site of the abortion.
Planned Parenthood and Milwaukee’s Affiliated Medical Services, the agencies filing the suit, contended that since AMS doctors could not obtain the admitting privileges,it would be forced to shut its doors, leading to a larger, and impossible to resolve, caseload at Wisconsin’s three Planned Parenthood sites; the law thus amounted to an illegal restriction on abortions.
Proponents of the law, which was backed by Republican majorities in both houses of the legislature and by Republican Gov. Scott Walker, say the law would assure hospital care for any woman who needed to be hospitalized for complications following an abortion.
Judges Richard Posner and David Hamilton voted to strike down the statute. Judge Daniel Manion dissented. A spokesman for Wisconsin Attorney General Brad Schimel, a Republican, said Schimel will seek a review of Monday’s decision by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Similar laws have been blocked in six other states. Earlier this month the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear a challenge to a 2013 Texas law which has reduced the number of abortion providers in that state by demanding that abortion clinics have the same standards as “ambulatory surgical centers,” with certain requirements for equipment, staff and infrastructure.
