« CA: Kelso and State Agree to Build Prison for 1,733 sick and mentally ill prisoners in Stockton | Main | UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Reports on Prisons Around the World »
October 21, 2009
AZ: Judge rules against Arpaio who demanded $300-$600 of prepayment for transportation for women seeking access to abortion care.
From the ACLU: "A victory for incarcerated women against Sheriff Joe Arpaio The judge ordered that it was unconstitutional for Maricopa Jail to require "prepayment" of transportation costs for those women seeking to access abortion care."
Judge: No prepayment for abortion transport
by Michael Kiefer - Oct. 21, 2009
The Arizona Republic
A Maricopa County Superior Court judge on Tuesday ruled that the Sheriff's Office cannot force jail inmates to prepay the cost of being transported to a clinic to obtain an abortion.
Judge Robert Oberbillig said he felt "compelled" to add the ruling to an existing injunction against the Sheriff's Office forbidding it from demanding court orders before taking inmates to abortion clinics.
Sheriff Joe Arpaio appealed that 2005 injunction all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which refused to hear the case.
Then his office told another inmate that she would have to pay $300 to $600 in advance to cover the office's cost of transport and security before being taken to the clinic. If she wanted a waiver for the fee, she could get a court order. The woman was able to obtain funds for the transport. Still, the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona, which brought the initial suit, argued that the prepayment created another obstacle to a woman's right to obtain a timely abortion under the U.S. Constitution.
Deputy Chief Sheriff Jack MacIntyre told The Republic that the court should have waited for a new case with a plaintiff who still needed an abortion, "someone whose actual constitutional rights have been affected. This really is judicial activism taken a few steps too far," he said.
But ACLU attorney Brigitte Amiri told the court, "That will effectively mean that some women will lose their constitutional right and be forced to carry a child to term."
Amiri told the court that the three women who have been plaintiffs over the history of the case had their abortions delayed seven weeks, four weeks and six weeks, respectively, which she claimed placed their health in danger and delayed their constitutional rights.
The ACLU did not dispute the sheriff's right to demand reimbursement for the transport costs.
But Daryl Manhart, an attorney for the Sheriff's Office, argued that extending credit in advance would be tantamount to giving away the money, as the inmates would likely not pay it back.
Oberbillig questioned Manhart rigorously over the hour-and-a-half long hearing, but ultimately ruled on the side of the side of the ACLU.
MacIntyre and Manhart both said that the Sheriff's Office would likely appeal the ruling.
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/2009/10/21/20091021acluabortion1021.html
Posted by lois at October 21, 2009 12:20 PM