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Mississippi appeals decision striking down requirement that abortionists have admitting privileges at local hospital

Feb 19, 2015

By Dave Andrusko

Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood

Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood

When NRL News Today reported on the case last November, the full 5th Circuit Court of Appeals had just refused to reconsider a ruling by a three-judge panel which blocked Mississippi from enforcing a law that requires abortionists to have admitting privileges at a local hospital. The court offered no explanation.

Yesterday Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood asked the United States Supreme Court to review the decision. Hood challenged the nub of the argument made by the pro-abortion Center for Reproductive Rights—that even when abortion is available in adjoining states, it placed an “undue burden” on women seeking abortions if Mississippi’s lone abortion clinic (Jackson Women’s Health Organization) was unable to secure admitting privileges for its fly-in abortionists.

Jackson Women's Health Organization owner Diane Derzis (Associated Press)

Jackson Women’s Health Organization owner Diane Derzis (Associated Press)

Passed in 2012, the law was originally set to go into effect July 1, 2012. But at the eleventh hour Judge Daniel P. Jordan temporarily blocked Mississippi from enforcing the law. In 2013. Jordan extended the temporary restraining order. That was upheld by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last November, sustaining a decision by a divided appeals court panel. (The dissent written by Judge Emilio M. Garza was brilliant. Our analysis of it can be read here.)

Jackson Women’s Health Organization is owned by the flamboyant Diane Derzis who has abortion clinics in Georgia, Mississippi, and Virginia.