The Short and Unhappy Life of Judge Conahan’s Undue Burden
Here's a pretty old legacy post from the blog archives of Geekery Today; it was written about 22 years ago, in 2002, on the World Wide Web.
This just in: by the time I had finished writing and posting a story on Judge Michael Conahan’s blatantly unconstitutional injunction forcing Tanya Meyers not to abort her pregnancy without the consent of her ex-boyfriend, Conahan had reversed his ruling and ruled that Stachokus’s lawsuit was to be denied and dismissed
[CNN].
Nevertheless, the fact that the suit was filed and that Conahan placed the injunction in the first place is still outrageous and inexcusable. As Meyers told the Philadelphia Inquierer,
The case has become a cause celebre in northeast Pennsylvania’s Wyoming Valley region, where the abortion debate is as personal as it is intense. Meyer’s private life has suddenly become fodder for TV and radio talk shows, newspaper stories and opinion letters — to her dismay.
They have polls and everything,Meyers said yesterday from her mother’s home in Kingston.On the radio, they ask:Should Tanya be allowed to have an abortion?andShould the father of a child be allowed to stop an abortion?It’s ridiculous… . Everybody’s worried about him. What about me?She said she had lost 12 pounds since she told Stachokus about the pregnancy on July 22.
Indeed. Not has the case thrown Meyers unwillingly into the spotlight for the sake of a abusive bastard of an ex-boyfriend and a grandstanding jackass of a judge, but the delay of over a week will also make the abortion more expensive and medically riskier. Conahan should still face severe repercussions for his irresponsible actions, even though he backed down before higher courts could throw out his baseless injunction. If I were advising Tanya Meyers, I’d suggest that she sue Stachokus for compensation and punitive damages, for the time lost and the additional cost and risk of the later abortion procedure (although if she wants to stay out of further media scrutiny, that’s a perfectly understandable decision).
Thank goodness we won this one in the end, but what a tragedy that an innocent woman was thrown into the middle of the battlefield by Conahan and Stachokus.
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Since the abortion was only delayed by two weeks (she was supposed to have it last week and she can very well have it next week), I don’t think she’d have much of a case for damages. It would be the ultimate irony, though, if she forced Stachokus to pay for her abortion. :)
Martin,
ob.I am not a lawyer: the information on abortion procedures here is verified, but the legal speculatins are mere guesswork on my part and may be totally harebrained.
Depending on just how soon she can get another procedure scheduled, and what day she had her last period, the delay might cost her a lot of money in increased procedure costs.
In most clinics (and the ones in Pennsylvania that I checked were the same way), the price of the procedure depends on how advanced the pregnancy is, and there’s a big spike in cost at the end of the first trimester, around 12 weeks from the Last Menstrual Period. Meyers was scheduled to have the procedure at 9 weeks LMP, but due to the malicious actions of her jackass ex-boyfriend and the jackass judge, she will be at least 11 weeks LMP when she has the procedure. If the day of the procedure and the day of her LMP line up wrong, she might not be able to get a procedure before reaching 12 weeks LMP. And if that happens, it would cost her about $150 – $200 more for the procedure.
So, her case for compensatory damages partially depends on how much bad luck she has with regard to timing. But even if she is alright on that count, the medical risks of an abortion procedure still increase with every day that the pregnancy continues, and I think she could still have a solid case for suing the bastards for emotional distress and the increased medical risk she is suffering. With punitive damages it could come out to a significant amount.
And I do relish the prospect of making that jackass might be forced to cover at least part of the costs of her abortion. :)