{"id":221537,"date":"2020-04-09T14:37:33","date_gmt":"2020-04-09T19:37:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=221537"},"modified":"2020-04-09T10:50:01","modified_gmt":"2020-04-09T15:50:01","slug":"fifth-circuit-ruling-foul-abortion-shell-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/fifth-circuit-ruling-foul-abortion-shell-game\/","title":{"rendered":"The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals’ ruling calls foul on the abortion industry’s shell game"},"content":{"rendered":"
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On April 7th, the\u00a0<\/span>Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals<\/span><\/a> vacated a lower court order to halt Governor Greg Abbott\u2019s restrictions on Texas abortion facilities. Abbott, along with the governors of Ohio, Iowa, Oklahoma, and Alabama, have imposed statewide restrictions<\/a> on nonessential activities, which include abortions, in order to stop the spread of the coronavirus.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Abortion advocates<\/span><\/a> believe these restrictions place an undue burden on the constitutional right to abortion. Planned Parenthood, the American Civil Liberties Union, and other pro-abortion organizations have filed suit<\/a> in numerous states and federal courts seeking to enjoin these statewide restrictions.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Federal District Court Judge Lee Yeakel originally sided with these groups, granting a temporary restraining order, enjoining the State of Texas from enforcing its restriction. In his ruling, Yeakel insisted that the Supreme Court, in its abortion rights jurisprudence, did not make an exception permitting states the ability to restrict abortion during a national emergency.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Fifth Circuit panel disagreed, calling Yeakel\u2019s reasoning \u201cbackwards.\u201d Applying the 1905 Supreme Court case of <\/span>Jacobson v. Commonwealth of Massachusetts<\/span><\/i>, the court reasoned that \u201c[U]nder the pressure of great dangers,\u201d constitutional rights may be infringed in the name of public safety. Thus, the right to peaceably assemble, to worship, or to travel, and indeed \u201cthe right to abortion\u201d may each be reasonably restricted in the event of a great danger affecting public safety.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

READ:\u00a0World Health Organization: Abortion is \u2018essential\u2019 during coronavirus pandemic<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Americans in every state have felt the burden of these statewide orders, which have placed restrictions on their travel, their ability to attend public worship, and their right to peaceful assembly. Ironically, in states that have not<\/em> deemed abortion \u201cnonessential,\u201d<\/span> sidewalk counselors<\/span><\/a> are being cited, and even arrested for peacefully praying outside abortion facilities – a direct violation of the First and Fourteenth Amendment right to public assembly and worship, and a form of viewpoint discrimination.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Christians closed out Lent, and now enter Holy Week without public worship. Jewish communities face the <\/span>dilemma<\/span><\/a> of whether to observe Shabbat and Passover via electronic video conferencing, which Orthodox communities consider a violation of Jewish custom.<\/span><\/p>\n

The constitutional “right to abortion” — albeit a ludicrous invention of the Supreme Court, alleged to have emanated from a penumbra<\/a> — cannot be of greater value than the freedoms enshrined in the First Amendment. Each of these rights has been suspended in furtherance of social-distancing policies, preventing people from coming into close contact unless an \u201cessential\u201d activity is involved.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n