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Seth Meyers: Trump Attacks Woodward, Demands Op-Ed Investigation

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Belafon9/11/2018 8:52:50 am PDT

From ThinkProgress:

A panel of three Republican judges openly defied the Supreme Court on Monday, permitting a law that is nearly identical to the abortion restriction the justices struck down in Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt to take effect.

Just like Hellerstedt, Comprehensive Health v. Hawley concerns two restrictions on abortion. The first requires abortion clinics to comply with expensive architectural requirements, the second requires that “all doctors who perform abortions at ASCs must be ‘privileged to perform surgical procedures in at least one licensed hospital in the community.’” Again, the Supreme Court struck down a nearly identical Texas law in Hellerstedt.

The same cannot be said, however, about Missouri’s law requiring abortion providers to be able to perform surgical procedures at a nearby hospital. Indeed, if anything, this provision of Missouri’s law is significantly more restrictive than Texas’. The law struck down in Hellerstedt merely required abortion doctors to “have active admitting privileges at a hospital” within 30 miles of the clinic. The Missouri law requires abortion providers to be able to perform surgeries in a nearby hospital, and it requires that hospital to be no more than “15 minutes away.”

And yet, the panel of three Republican judges all conclude that this provision may stand, at least for now. Judge Shepherd claims this result is justified because “Hellerstedt did not find, as a matter of law, that abortion was inherently safe or that provisions similar to the laws it considered would never be constitutional.” The Supreme Court’s opinion in Hellerstedt determined that abortion was very safe in the state of Texas, but “no such determination about abortion in Missouri was made here.”

Shorter Republicans: Just because the SCOTUS determines the law of the land, doesn’t mean they determine the law in Missouri.

These guys are hoping Kavanaugh is on the court by the time this gets there.

h/t Daily Kos