Kansas Abortion Law Challenge Dropped By ACLU

[moonbladem]

WICHITA, Kan. -- The American Civil Liberties Union ended its legal challenge Friday to a Kansas law restricting private health insurance coverage for abortions.

A court filing shows the parties have agreed to dismiss all remaining claims, with each side bearing its own costs and attorneys' fees.

The agreement follows a federal judge's Jan. 7

Comments

[leftbase]

...the ACLU failed to provide any evidence that the Legislature's predominant motivation in passing the 2011 law was to make it more difficult to get abortions.

Predominant motivation? I'm pretty sure it was their only motivation.

[moonshaz]

I know. This really sucks.

[ragnor144]

I don't know how anyone could effectively argue otherwise.

[maladaptive]

That's kinda what I was thinking. So they don't want insurance plans to cover abortion... but that won't make it harder to get one--

oic, it's because the "motivation" is people don't want to pay for it, who cares if the side-effect is that women can't get an abortion! That's just an unintended but delightful bonus. It's not the primary motivation.

[perthro]

This decision didn't *happen* to be made by a bunch of white guys, did it?

[yesthatnagia]

I am literally just full of HATE right now. Fuck Kansas. Fuck anti-choice crazies. Fuck everything.

[tabaqui]

WTF, ACLU. Thanks for dropping the ball big time. What garbage. Right, okay, you were facing a bunch of jackass haters, i get it, but still. FUCK. My morning is becoming one of rage.

[sarahsayssoo]

bad case law in one state would negatively affect the fight everywhere else. ACLU dropped it because they didn't want to further hurt their chances on other cases

[tabaqui]

I know, i just.... I'm so sick of women being jerked around and pushed down and *fucked over*.

Arrgh.

[intrikate88]

The cost for an abortion at a clinic ranges from $450 to $1,675, and hospital abortions can cost upwards of $10,000.

Jesus, for that cost you might as well pop out the baby and leave it at the hospital for the foster system to pick it up. (I know that's a callous thing to say. It's a callous response to a callous world.)

I don't get how it was ruled that a giant financial disincentive was not a barrier to abortion. I mean, I'm sad the ACLU dropped the case, but I'm even more angry at the court that disregarded evidence that didn't support its foregone conclusion. I don't see how the ACLU could have done anything further if all the support for their argument was going to be disregarded anyway. But I'm not a legal scholar and don't know how these things proceed from there if you happen to get a judge who does not give a shit for making a balanced and fair decision based on supported arguments.