January, 19 2016, 09:45am EDT
U.S. Supreme Court Refuses to Review One of the Most Extreme Abortion Bans in the Nation
Arkansas’ ban on abortion at 12 weeks of pregnancy to remain permanently blocked. Order comes two months after Supreme Court agrees to review Texas’ deceptive clinic shutdown law
WASHINGTON
The U.S. Supreme Court today refused to review Arkansas' blatantly unconstitutional ban on abortion at 12 weeks of pregnancy--allowing a May 2015 ruling from an appellate court striking the measure to stand.
"Arkansas politicians cannot pick and choose which parts of the Constitution they want to uphold," said Nancy Northup, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights. "The Supreme Court has never wavered in affirming that every woman has a right to safely and legally end a pregnancy in the U.S--and this extreme abortion ban was a direct affront to that right.
"We now look to the Justices to ensure Texas women are not robbed of their health, dignity, and rights under false pretenses and strike down the state's deceptive clinic shutdown law currently under review."
Today's order comes just over two months after the Supreme Court agreed to review Texas's clinic shutdown law-- a measure that has already shuttered half of the abortion providers in Texas, and is poised to leave the nation's second-largest state with 10 or fewer abortion clinics.
The U.S. Supreme Court has consistently held--first in Roe v. Wade and again most recently in Planned Parenthood v. Casey--that women have a constitutional right to decide whether to end or continue a pregnancy and states cannot ban abortion prior to viability. The Supreme Court refused to review a decision permanently blocking Arizona's ban on abortion at 20 weeks of pregnancy in 2013, and courts in Idaho and Georgia have also recently blocked similar pre-viability bans. In late 2015, North Dakota asked the Supreme Court to review a similarly unconstitutional measure which bans abortion as early as six weeks of pregnancy.
"Arkansas cannot veto a woman's decision to have an abortion, period," said Talcott Camp, deputy director of the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project. "This personal, medical decision rests with a woman, her family, and her doctor - not politicians. We are gratified but unsurprised that the Court found nothing worthy of their review in this case."
Arkansas' SB 134 bans abortion at 12 weeks of pregnancy with only narrow exceptions in certain cases of rape, incest, and medical emergencies. SB 134 was enacted in March 2013--just two days after Arkansas Governor Mike Beebe vetoed the measure--when both houses in the state legislature voted to override his veto. The Center for Reproductive Rights, the American Civil Liberties Union, and ACLU of Arkansas filed suit in April 2013 against the ban on behalf of two physicians who provide abortions in Little Rock. A federal district judge permanently struck down the ban in March 2014, saying the extreme measure would "prevent a woman's constitutional right to elect to have an abortion before viability." The U.S Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit permanently blocked the ban in May 2015; Arkansas asked the Supreme Court to review the appellate court's decision earlier this fall.
The Center for Reproductive Rights is a global human rights organization of lawyers and advocates who ensure reproductive rights are protected in law as fundamental human rights for the dignity, equality, health, and well-being of every person.
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Amid Spying Fight, House Passes Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act
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While applauding the U.S. House of Representatives' bipartisan passage of a bill to ensure that "law enforcement and intelligence agencies can't do an end-run around the Constitution by buying information from data brokers" on Wednesday, privacy advocates highlighted that Congress is trying to extend and expand a long-abused government spying program.
The House voted 219-199 for Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act (FANFSA), which won support from 96 Democrats and 123 Republicans, including the lead sponsor, Rep. Warren Davidson (R-Ohio). Named for the constitutional amendment that protects against unreasonable searches and seizures, H.R. 4639 would close what campaigners call the data broker loophole.
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Wednesday's vote followed the House sending the Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act to the Senate. H.R. 7888 would reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which allows for warrantless spying on noncitizens abroad but also sweeps up Americans' data.
The House notably included an amendment forcing a wide range of individuals and businesses to cooperate with government spying operations but rejected an amendment that would have added a warrant requirement to the bill, which the Senate could vote on as soon as Thursday.
Noting those decisions on the FISA reauthorization legislation, Ruddock stressed that "today's vote is a victory but follows a recent loss and ongoing threat as that Section 702 bill moves to the Senate this week too."
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Jeramie Scott, senior counsel and director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center's Project on Surveillance Oversight, also praised the House's FANFSA passage on Wednesday.
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As The Intercept's Ken Klippenstein and Daniel Boguslaw noted:
Since 2011, the U.N. Security Council has rejected the Palestinian Authority's request for full member status. On April 2, the Palestinian Observer Mission to the U.N. requested that the council once again take up consideration of its membership application. According to the first State Department cable, U.N. meetings since the beginning of April suggest that Algeria, China, Guyana, Mozambique, Russia, Slovenia, Sierra Leone, and Malta support granting Palestine full membership to the U.N. It also says that France, Japan, and Korea are undecided, while the United Kingdom will likely abstain from a vote.
Along with the United States, China, France, Russia, and the United Kingdom are permanent members of the UNSC, so they also have veto power.
Ahead of Thursday's planned vote, Spain has been doing its own lobbying in Europe to build greater support for Palestinian statehood. At a joint Tuesday press conference with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, Slovenian Prime Minister Robert Golob said the question is "when, not if, but when is the best moment to recognize Palestine."
Belgium—which is seeking economic sanctions against Israel in response to its genocidal war on Gaza—is expected to join Spain's push for Palestinian statehood after the country's European Union presidency expires in June.
Currently, 139 of the U.N.'s 193 member states recognize Palestine as an independent state.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—who has also claimed to support a so-called "two-state solution"—has alternately boasted about thwarting Palestinian statehood.
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Yanis Varoufakis, a PI member and secretary-general of the left-wing Democracy in Europe Movement 2025, called the database "a treasure chest of well-researched reports on how the reactionaries of the world unite."
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