Court Rules that Anti-Choice Law Can't Be Used to Prosecute Mother Who Aborted at Home
LatestJennie Linn McCormack, the Idaho woman whose story of a self-induced abortion that resulted in criminal charges is among the most depressing things you’ll ever read, got a big legal win today when a US Circuit Court ruled that her home state couldn’t charge her with any crime. Idaho’s draconian anti-abortion laws put an undue burden on women like McCormack seeking to terminate their pregnancies, the court ruled, and, to use proper legalese, to be frank, shit is getting pretty ridiculous for women who want to access a legal medical procedure.
Idaho state law requires that all abortions during the first trimester be performed by a doctor in a hospital, clinic, or doctor’s office. It also require a 24-hour waiting period. For women like McCormack who don’t live anywhere near a clinic that performs abortions, complying with the law would lead to taking time off work, finding childcare, and finding lodging overnight in the city where the abortion would be provided. McCormack’s plight isn’t an uncommon one — 86% of counties in the US do not contain an abortion provider, and women like McCormack who live in rural areas are often up a creek without a paddle if they end up pregnant and they don’t want to be.