An Idaho woman challenging her state’s anti-abortion laws has not received much attention from groups on either side of the abortion debate. But for the first time, one group is holding a rally to support her. It’s in Seattle Wednesday .
Jennie Linn McCormack of Pocatello, Idaho was arrested last year after local police learned she had terminated a 20-week pregnancy at home.
McCormack lives hours from the closest abortion provider. So she got RU-486 off the Internet. That violated an obscure 1972 Idaho law that makes it a felony for a woman to have an abortion without the assistance of a doctor.
McCormack’s attorney is challenging that statute, as well as Idaho’s recently passed “Fetal Pain Law.”
Now, the group Seattle Clinic Defense is collecting donations for McCormack. Organizer Lindsay Craven says she’s disappointed more groups haven’t thrown their support behind the case.
“Because as we see access being more and more limited this really seems like the future of what women are going to have to do to get access to abortion.”
The state argues Idaho’s law protects women from unlicensed and unsafe procedures. Last week the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments in Portland on an injunction that prevents McCormack from being prosecuted.
On the Web:
Rally in support of Jennie McCormack:
Copyright 2012 Northwest News Network
Copyright 2012 Northwest News Network
