Judge Won’t Block Rules on Abortion Drug in Arizona - NYTimes.com
▻http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/01/us/politics/judge-wont-block-rules-on-abortion-drugs.html
The new restrictions, argued Planned Parenthood, one of the plaintiffs in the case, would force many women to undergo unnecessary surgical abortions, and would prevent some women from getting an abortion at all — especially in Northern Arizona, where the only abortion provider offers only the medication route. The plaintiffs sought a temporary restraining order to block the rules while a legal challenge could work its way through the courts.
In denying the request on Monday, the judge, David C. Bury of United States District Court, wrote that Arizona’s rules will not unduly burden a woman’s constitutional right to an abortion, since the alternative of surgical abortions remains available. The fact that some women may have to travel hundreds of miles to clinics, twice, under the restrictions, and that the process will cost more, he wrote, “do not qualify as irreparable harm.”
Judge Bury, who was appointed by President George W. Bush, wrote that it is “unlikely that plaintiffs will prevail on the merits of the constitutional claims.” In seeking an injunction, he wrote, the plaintiffs “have not established serious questions going to the merits nor that the hardship balance tips sharply towards them.”
Attempts to require the narrow F.D.A. standards have been passed in several Republican-led states, and lawmakers have argued they are protecting women’s health from unauthorized, “off-label” use of drugs.
Similar laws have been overturned in North Dakota and annulled by Oklahoma’s Supreme Court. Courts in Ohio and Texas let the laws stand with some exceptions, including considerations of the health of patients who might face risks from surgical abortion.
Le juge fédéral n’invalide pas les restrictions à l’#avortement médicamenteux.