Government
Mississippi abortion ban lifted
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted Aug. 16, 2004
A federal judge in Mississippi ordered a temporary injunction last month against a Mississippi law that banned abortions after the first trimester unless they were performed at a licensed hospital or ambulatory surgery center. U.S. District Judge Tom S. Lee in the Southern District of Mississippi said the law, which went into effect July 1, didn't do anything new to protect patients' health.
Jackson Women's Health Organization, one of only two clinics in Mississippi that provides second-trimester abortions, sued the state over the abortion measure. The health organization is not a licensed hospital or ambulatory surgery center, and neither is the other facility.
The state "knew that the effect of the amendment would be to make second-trimester abortions unavailable in Mississippi ... a regulation that has the effect of unduly burdening a woman's right to choose an abortion," Lee wrote in his opinion.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2004/08/16/gvbf0816.htm.












