ACLU Asks Court to Protect Access to Abortion Care for Women Prisoners in Missouri

Via ACLU press release:

The American Civil Liberties Union today asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit to uphold a ruling allowing women prisoners in Missouri to obtain timely, safe, and legal abortion care.

"Courts throughout the country have consistently held that being in prison does not mean a woman gives up her reproductive rights," said Diana Kasdan, a staff attorney with the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project, who argued the ACLU's position before the court today. "Like other serious medical needs, prison officials must ensure that a woman can access abortion care."

In 2005, prison officials in Missouri went to extreme lengths to deny a woman prisoner abortion care. The ACLU intervened, asking a court to require the prison to transport the woman for an abortion. When the court ruled that the prison must transport the woman to a nearby health care facility, the state unsuccessfully appealed the case to the U.S. Supreme Court and the woman received the care she needed....

[The] case is Roe v. Crawford, et al., No. 06-3108. Lawyers on the case include Kasdan and Talcott Camp of the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project, Anthony Rothert of the ACLU of Eastern Missouri, and Thomas M. Blumenthal and James G. Felakos, cooperating counsel for the ACLU of Eastern Missouri.