End Times and Current Events

ND judge: 2011 abortion law unconstitutional
http://news.yahoo.com/nd-judge-2011-abortion-law-unconstitutional-225650504.html
7/15/13

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — A 2011 North Dakota law that outlaws one of two drugs used in nonsurgical abortions violates the state and U.S. constitutions, a state judge ruled Monday.

After a three-day trial in April, East Central Judge Wickham Corwin said he'd rule in favor of the state's sole abortion clinic, calling the 2011 state law "simply wrongheaded." Corwin officially ruled on the case Monday.

"No compelling state interest justifies this infringement ..." Corwin wrote in his 58-page ruling. He already had granted an injunction preventing the law from taking effect.

Autumn Katz, staff attorney for the Center for Reproductive Rights, which is helping the Red River Women's Clinic in Fargo with its legal challenges, argued that would essentially eliminate the procedure and illegally restrict abortion rights.

"The judge looked at the facts and the evidence and found the law served no rational state interest and struck it down on that basis," Katz said.

Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem said Monday he will appeal to the North Dakota Supreme Court.

"It's something that the North Dakota Supreme Court has never addressed," Stenehjem said of defining abortion rights. "This should be ruled on not by one trial judge but by the North Dakota Supreme Court. That's only appropriate."

Corwin agreed last month to combine the lawsuit against the 2011 law with one that challenges a new requirement for doctors who perform abortions to obtain hospital-admitting privileges. He has said the 2013 law raises the same "legal and factual matters" as the 2011 legislation.

State attorneys have argued that the cases are "separate and distinct."

A hearing is slated for July 31 in state district court in Fargo.

North Dakota already has spent more than $52,000 defending the 2011 state law, according to records obtained by The Associated Press. Records show that Dr. Donna Harrison, the president the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists, has billed the state more than $49,000 to act as an expert witness.

In his ruling Monday, Corwin was highly critical of Harrison, saying her "opinions lack scientific support , tend to be based on unsubstantiated concerns and are generally at odds with solid medical evidence."

The admitting privileges law was one of four that the Republican-controlled Legislature and GOP Gov. Jack Dalrymple passed this year, giving North Dakota the nation's most stringent abortion laws. They are slated to take effect Aug. 1.

Lawmakers who introduced the measures say they want to close the Fargo clinic and challenge the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade ruling that legalized abortion up until viability, usually at 22 to 24 weeks.

The Center for Reproductive Rights last month filed a federal lawsuit seeking to block the law banning abortions as early as six weeks into a pregnancy, when a fetal heartbeat can first be detected. It also challenges a new measure that would make North Dakota the only state to prohibit women from having an abortion because a fetus has a genetic defect, such as Down syndrome.

Huh? Did they just say that? So they are telling us that it can't be law if it doesn't serve the state's interest? It's not about what the state has an interest in, it's about what the people by their representatives vote into law.

Who cares what the state has an interest in? It's what the people want, or it's suppose to be.  ::)

Federal judge blocks most restrictive abortion law in the country
7/22/13
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/07/22/19618223-federal-judge-blocks-most-restrictive-abortion-law-in-the-country?lite=

A federal judge has blocked enforcement of North Dakota's new abortion law -- the nation's most restrictive.

The law, which was set to take effect next week, would ban abortions beginning at six weeks, when the fetal heartbeat can be detected.

U.S. District Judge Daniel Hovland concluded the North Dakota law contradicts U.S. Supreme Court cases addressing abortion restraints and violates a 40-year precedent established in Roe v. Wade.

If the law were to take effect, Hovland said nearly 90 percent of the abortions currently performed at the Red River Women's Clinic, the sole clinic providing abortions in North Dakota, would be prohibited and the clinic would likely have to shut down. 

“The State of North Dakota has presented no evidence to justify the passage of this troubling law,” Hovland said in his order. “The State has extended an invitation to an expensive court battle over a law restricting abortions that is a blatant violation of the constitutional guarantees afforded to all women.”

The Supreme Court defined viability, or the point that a fetus can survive outside the womb, at 28 weeks in Roe v. Wade. This marker has caused several restrictive abortion laws to be blocked by federal state judges in states such as Wisconsin, Idaho and Arkansas.

Earlier this month, U.S. District Judge William Conley of Wisconsin issued a temporary block on a recently enacted abortion bill that mandates women to have an ultrasound prior to the abortion and requires doctors who provide abortion services to have hospital admitting privileges.

The law would have forced the closure of two of the state’s four abortion clinics. Conley noted that the law went from proposal to enactment in 43 days and had no medical purpose to support it.

In March, an Idaho federal judge reversed a 2011 state law, which made it a felony to perform an abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy unless there was proof the pregnancy endangered the mother’s life.

Since 2010, 180 abortion restrictions have been enacted in 30 states, according to Elizabeth Nash of the Guttmacher Institute, an abortion rights think tank.

Last week, Texas Gov. Rick Perry signed into law a bill that imposes a series of restrictions, including a ban after 20 weeks of pregnancy. North Carolina's House passed a bill that directs state regulators to change standards for abortion clinics to bring them in line with more regulated outpatient surgical centers. And Missouri's governor let a bill become law without his signature that requires doctors to be in the room for the initial dose of a drug used in medication abortions.

Laws such as North Dakota’s six-week abortion ban do not hold up to legal challenges, Nash said.

“They will fail because they are clearly unconstitutional,” she said. “What it is more concerning are these laws that push the envelope.”

http://judgepedia.org/index.php/Daniel_Hovland
Daniel L. Hovland is an Article III federal judge for the United States District Court for the District of North Dakota. Hovland served as the Chief Judge of the Court from 2002 to 2009[1]. He joined the court in 2002 after being nominated by President George W. Bush.

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Ecc 11:4  He that observeth the wind shall not sow; and he that regardeth the clouds shall not reap.
Ecc 11:5  As thou knowest not what is the way of the spirit, nor how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child: even so thou knowest not the works of God who maketh all.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-07-31/abortion-rule-on-hospital-access-blocked-in-north-dakota.html
7/31/13
Abortion Rule on Hospital Access Blocked in North Dakota

A North Dakota law requiring abortion providers to be affiliated with a hospital within 30 miles (48 kilometers) of their clinic was temporarily blocked by a state court in Fargo.

Judge Wickham Corwin granted a request by the Red River Women’s Clinic to block the law after a hearing today, saying the state failed to show a compelling need for it. The clinic is the only abortion provider in North Dakota, he said in his ruling.

“A woman’s right to choose is one of the inalienable freedoms guaranteed by the first section of our constitution,” Corwin said, contradicting the state’s arguments.

Signed into law by Republican Governor Jack Dalrymple on March 26, the affiliation requirement was scheduled to take effect tomorrow and would have forced the Red River Women’s Clinic in Fargo to close.

“As RRWC provides its physicians with the appropriate staff and facilities, there is obviously no need for a legislative mandate that each of those physicians be credentialed to also perform abortions at a local hospital,” the judge said.

Second Setback
Corwin’s ruling is the second setback this month for efforts to place new limits on abortion in North Dakota. A law barring abortions if a fetal heartbeat is detected was temporarily blocked July 22 by a federal judge who called the measure “a blatant violation” of U.S. Supreme Court rulings.

North Dakota Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem’s press secretary, Liz Brocker, didn’t immediately reply to an e-mailed request for comment on Corwin’s ruling.

“Today’s decision ensures that North Dakota’s only abortion clinic can keep its doors open to the many women it provides critical health care to every year,” Bebe Anderson, director of the Center for Reproductive Rights’ U.S. legal program, said in a statement today.

The admitting case is MKB Management Corp., d/b/a Red River Women’s Clinic v. Burdick, 09-2011-CV-02205, North Dakota District Court, East Central Judicial District, Cass County (Fargo).

Look at that double-talk!

No need for legislative mandate to be credentialed? So then why don't you just get the medical establishment to toss out all those other requirements to be a doctor or hospital? What idiots!  ::)

The medical profession is ALL about credentials, so as to try to keep out the riffraff and snake oil salesmen. ANY doctor would want hospital access, that's the whole point!

Any doctor that doesn't have access to any hospital, you better run from, and fast, because that is a professional red flag. Hospitals WANT doctors. That's more patients using their facilities, and thus more money in their pockets. Duh!

Those murderers don't want the hospital access issue addressed because they know the hospitals don't give them access because they are murderers and a disgrace to the medical profession.