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| Inmate Asks Judge to Force Prison to Pay for Abortion |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 05/02/2003 |
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A judge who had been asked to decide whether the Berks County (Pa.) Prison should be forced to pay for a pregnant inmate's abortion avoided the issue Thursday by releasing her from jail. Judge Stephen B. Lieberman declined to hear legal arguments in the case, and instead lowered the woman's bail. She had been in jail for a month, awaiting trial on drug delivery charges. The ruling will allow the woman to arrange for the procedure privately if she still wishes to do so, her attorney, James M. Polyak said. ''It was an unexpected solution, but we are pleased with the way it worked out,'' he said. The 23-year-old woman, who was identified in court papers only by her initials, A.G., first asked for the abortion on April 24. Warden George A. Wagner turned her down, saying abortions were an elective procedure and the county had no obligation to pay for them. ''The issue, above all else, is about accountability,'' Wagner said. ''It is not an issue about the correctness of an abortion, or the rights to an abortion. It comes down to who is more accountable, the mother or the county.'' The woman said she had no money, and no one who could help her pay for the operation. She is 21 weeks pregnant. Abortions are legal in Pennsylvania until the 24th week of pregnancy. The woman said she wanted the abortion because the child's father was a police informant who arranged a drug deal with her, then turned her in to police. Wagner said it was the first time an inmate asked the county jail to pay for an abortion. He said he has no personal opinion as to whether abortion should be legal. Courts nationwide have consistently ruled that prisons are constitutionally obligated to pay for abortions if inmates want them. In a decisive 1987 case, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia said prisons ''may not condition the provision of services for an elective, nontherapeutic abortion ... upon the inmates' ability or willingness to pay.'' The ruling covers jails in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Linda Rosenthal, an attorney for the Center for Reproductive Rights, said prison officials often ignore the law, though, and women across the country have had to go to court to see it enforced. ''A woman has a federal constitutional right to terminate her pregnancy, even though she is incarcerated,'' Rosenthal said. ''Jails can't refuse to pay. Inmates don't have the ability to go out and work, so they can't just raise money on their own.'' Pennsylvania's state prisons generally require inmates to pay for abortions, although there are exceptions, said Department of Corrections spokeswoman Barbara Wilhelm. She said to her knowledge, the state jails had never had a case of a prisoner who wanted an abortion, but lacked the money to pay for one. |
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