Judge Suspends Wisconsin's New Abortion Law

It set hospital-admitting rules for doctors performing procedure
By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 9, 2013 7:44 AM CDT
Judge Suspends Wisconsin's New Abortion Law
In this June 28, 2013 file photo, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker speaks in his Capitol office in Madison, Wis.   (AP Photo/Scott Bauer, File)

On Friday, Gov. Scott Walker signed into law a bill requiring doctors performing abortions to have admitting privileges at hospitals within a half-hour of their practices. Now a federal judge has temporarily halted the measure, citing "a troubling lack of justification for the hospital admitting-privileges requirement." The US Supreme Court says measures like this one must be "reasonably directed to the preservation of maternal health"—and "it appears that no medical purpose is served by this requirement," Judge William Conley wrote, per CNN.

His move, following a Planned Parenthood suit, bars the measure until July 18, a day after another hearing on the measure, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel notes. Another part of the law, requiring pre-abortion ultrasounds, is untouched by Conley's move. It was thought that the admitting-privileges portion of the law would halve the number of abortion clinics in the state, leaving just two. (More Wisconsin stories.)

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