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LeftInTX

(25,567 posts)
Thu May 5, 2022, 10:23 AM May 2022

Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization - 5th Court of Appeals..Huh???

In March 2018, the state of Mississippi passed the Gestational Age Act, which banned any abortion operation after the first 15 weeks of pregnancy, with exceptions for medical emergencies or severe fetal abnormality, but did not include any exceptions for cases of rape or incest. Governor Phil Bryant signed the bill into law, saying: "I am committed to making Mississippi the safest place in America for an unborn child, and this bill will help us achieve that goal."[7] On the bill, he further stated: "We'll probably be sued here in about a half hour, and that'll be fine with me. It is worth fighting over."[7]

Within a day of passage, the sole remaining abortion clinic in the state, Jackson Women's Health Organization, sued the state challenging the constitutionality of the bill.[7] The Center for Reproductive Rights supported the clinic in its legal defense.[8] The case was heard by Judge Carlton W. Reeves of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi. In November 2018, Reeves ruled for the clinic and placed an injunction on the state enjoining them from enforcing the Act. Reeves stated that based on evidence that viability of the fetus begins between 23 and 24 weeks, Mississippi had "no legitimate state interest strong enough, prior to viability, to justify a ban on abortions".[8] The state appealed to the Fifth Circuit, which upheld Reeves' ruling in a 3–0 decision in December 2019. Senior Circuit Judge for the Fifth Circuit Patrick Higginbotham wrote in his opinion, in upholding Roe v. Wade, that "States may regulate abortion procedures prior to viability so long as they do not impose an undue burden on the woman's right, but they may not ban abortions".[9] A request for an en banc rehearing was denied.[10]

In February 2020, a few months after upholding the injunction on the Gestational Age Act ruling, in a per curiam decision, the Fifth Circuit also upheld an injunction against a second Mississippi abortion law which was aimed to block abortions at the detection of a fetus's heartbeat, which nominally could be from 6 to 12 weeks into pregnancy, known as the heartbeat bill. The injunction was also issued by Reeves, in May 2019.[11] The Fifth Circuit's rationale followed similar rationale to the injunction against the Gestational Age Act: while it is true that a fetal heartbeat can happen as early as six weeks into term, this is still well before the fetus could be considered viable. The Circuit Court opinion wrote "If a ban on abortion after 15 weeks is unconstitutional, then it follows that a ban on abortion at an earlier stage of pregnancy is also unconstitutional."[12]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dobbs_v._Jackson_Women%27s_Health_Organization


The Fifth Court of Appeals, always sides with the cons. Higginbotham is a Republican.
The District Judge, Reeves is an Obama appointee.

I'm surprised that a judge on the Fifth Court supported Roe V Wade. (However Higginbotham may be a moderate) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Higginbotham


Sorry, I just didn't follow this case in the lower courts. I had assumed the Fifth had supported Mississippi, the entire time.
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