The Supreme Court ruled earlier this week that Missouri officials must allow a pregnant prisoner to have an abortion. Although the case had been appealed by Missouri Governor Matt Blunt, who is openly anti-abortion, the Supreme Court unanimously ordered that the inmate, known as Jane Roe, should be transported from her cell in Vandalia to a St. Louis abortion clinic 80 miles away.

Roe is four months pregnant, and discovered her pregnancy after being arrested on a parole violation. Once her efforts to get an abortion were rebuffed, Roe sued the state of Missouri. This is the first time that the Supreme Court has addressed the rights of pregnant inmates to get abortions. U.S. District Judge Dean Whipple stated that the Supreme Court has made it clear that women have constitutional rights to abortion, and ordered that the woman be transferred immediately to the clinic.

However, the state of Missouri appealed at the last minute, and Justice Clarence Thomas stepped in to intervene as well. A stay from Thomas prevented Roe from having the abortion on Saturday – but he changed his mind on Monday, joining the other eight justices in rejecting Missouri's emergency appeal to stop Roe's abortion.