JACKSON, Miss. – The state of Mississippi has until Wednesday to ask the full 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to reconsider a decision that struck down a law that would have closed Mississippi’s only abortion clinic.
The original deadline was Tuesday, but a court clerk approved an extension after the state said a Sunday lighting strike disabled its lawyers’ computers.
The 2012 law required clinic physicians to have admitting privileges at a local hospital. The owner of the Jackson Women’s Health Organization said clinic physicians applied for them, but were turned down. Last month, a three judge panel ruled the law unconstitutional because it would have put the abortion clinic out of business. Lawyers for the state had argued that if it had closed, women would have had to go out of state for abortions.
Mississippi now plans to ask all 15 circuit judges to rehear the case. A majority of them must agree.
For now, the clinic remains open and uses out-of-state physicians to perform abortions.
