Pro-Choice Victories

Judges all over the country are showing their support for the pro-choice movement in several rulings over the newest anti-choice legislation. The barrage of attacks on reproductive health have made the future of reproductive freedom seem dark, but there are many strong voices on the side of those who stand together for women's health.

In Indiana, a judge has ruled against the new legislation banning funds from medicaid from being allocated to Planned Parenthood centers.
A judge in South Dakota recognized that longer waiting periods and mandatory counseling for abortions is disrespectful to women's freedom and integrity. She barred the implementation of a law to expand the waiting period for an abortion to 72 hours.
In Kansas, the state's three abortion centers have been submitted to unreasonable regulations on their clinic facilities which threatened to leave the state without an abortion provider. A judge has protected these health care providers by stopping the enforcement of the regulations. In another victory, U.S. District Judge J. Thomas Marten has barred the law defunding Planned Parenthood, a law which would have punished Kansas Citizens who seek family planning or low-cost medication.

The GOP in Minnesota legislature agreed to drop social issues from their agenda if the Governer would sign the Republican budget. This means that the Baby Pain Bill similar to the Ohio bill passed in the assembly, which would outlaw abortion according to fetal pain standards, will be dropped from the legislative agenda.