Missouri Attorney General to appeal ruling requiring state to provide transport for pregnant inmates seeking abortions

Aug 20 2006

Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon (R) on Wednesday said he will appeal a federal court ruling that requires the state to provide transportation to clinics for pregnant inmates who wish to have abortions, the AP/Kansas City Star reports (Lieb, AP/Kansas City Star, 8/16).

U.S. District Judge Dean Whipple in July ruled that the state must provide transportation for inmates seeking abortions.

The Missouri Department of Corrections in July 2005 adopted a policy barring the use of tax dollars to transport prisoners to undergo abortions.

Attorneys for a state prison inmate -- identified as "Jane Roe" in court papers -- filed a lawsuit in October 2005 asking a federal court to order the corrections department to transport the woman to a clinic for an abortion.

Whipple agreed to the request. Attorneys for the Missouri Office of the Attorney General unsuccessfully appealed the ruling to the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court.

The woman was about 17 weeks' pregnant and had been seeking an abortion for about seven weeks before she received one.

The American Civil Liberties Union filed for a federal ruling to make the Jane Roe decision applicable to all pregnant women in the state, which Whipple agreed to (Kaiser Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 7/20).

Nixon filed a notice of appeal to the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis, the AP/Star reports.

The appeal will cite a 1986 state law that restricts the state from assisting an abortion when the life of a woman is not jeopardized, according to Nixon spokesperson John Fougere (AP/Kansas City Star, 8/16).