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U.S. NEWSSaturday 14 November 2015

Utah judge reverses order to take baby from lesbian couple

Foster parents April Hoagland and Beckie Peirce are photographed in Salt Lake City. The couple dered the baby removed. parents based on sexual
National LGBT groups orientation.
said Friday they are relieved after finding out they will be able to keep a baby girl they have called the decision outra- That language was crossed
geous, and Democratic out in Johansen’s new or-
been raising as foster parents. (Steve Griffin/The Salt Lake Tribune via AP) presidential candidate der. It now says the court
Hillary Rodham Clinton merely cited concerns that
MICHELLE L. PRICE Friday, hours after a judge big relief.” brought attention to the research has shown chil-
BRADY McCOMBS reversed his ruling to take Hoagland and Beckie case by Tweeting about it. dren are more emotionally
Associated Press the 9-month-old child and Peirce later spoke at a State officials and an at- and mentally stable when
PRICE, Utah (AP) — A Utah place her with a hetero- news conference outside torney for the women raised by a mother and fa-
lesbian couple said Friday sexual couple for her well- the courthouse where the filed court documents de- ther in the same home.
they are relieved after find- being. judge made the initial rul- manding the judge rescind Hoagland, a stay-at-home
ing out they will be able to “We’re just happy we ing on Tuesday. his decision. The judge mother, and Peirce are
keep a baby girl they have don’t have to say good- They said they are grateful reversed course, but he among a group of same-
been raising as foster par- bye to her on Tuesday,” for the nationwide support could still order the child sex married couples who
ents. April Hoagland told The their case received after removed at a Dec. 4 cus- were allowed to become
The married couple spoke Associated Press. “That’s a Judge Scott Johansen or- tody hearing. foster parents in Utah after
They said they were last summer’s U.S. Supreme
shocked when Johansen Court ruling that made
made his initial ruling in gay marriage legal across
court Tuesday, mentioning the country.
research that said children The couple is also raising
raised by heterosexual Peirce’s biological chil-
families do better and that dren, girls ages 12 and 13.
“same-sex marriages have They were worried about
double the rate of instabil- what would happen to
ity as heterosexual mar- their girls at school in the
riages.” small central Utah city with
They said there were au- about 8,400 people. In-
dible gasps in the court- stead, the girls discovered
room, and state lawyers widespread support from
countered with evidence their classmates, Hoagland
to the contrary. and Peirce said.
The American Psychologi- They said they want to
cal Association has said adopt the 9-month old
there’s no scientific basis baby, who wasn’t with
that gay couples are unfit them Friday.q

US top court agrees to hear first abortion case since 2007

MARK SHERMAN 10 abortion clinics open abortions may be per- cal hospital. nio and only one oper-
Associated Press across the state. Before formed, imposed limits More than half of the ating on a limited basis
WASHINGTON (AP) — the law, the country’s on abortions using drugs state’s clinics closed when in the Rio Grande Valley
The U.S. Supreme Court second-largest state had instead of surgery and the admitting privileges bordering Mexico.
is taking on its first abor- 41 abortion clinics. raised standards for clinics requirement was allowed The state has argued that
tion case in eight years, a The high court previously and the doctors who work to take effect. Nineteen women in west Texas al-
dispute over state regula- blocked parts of the Texas in them. clinics remain. ready cross into New Mex-
tion of abortion clinics. law. The court took no ac- The new case concerns The focus of the dispute ico to obtain abortions at
A decision in the case in- tion on a separate appeal the last category. In Texas, at the Supreme Court is a clinic in the suburbs of
volving one of the coun- from Mississippi, where a the fight is over two provi- whether the law imposes the Texas city of El Paso.
try’s most contested issues state law would close the sions of the law that Gov. what the court has called Backers of the regulations
is expected to be issued only abortion clinic in one Rick Perry signed in 2013. an undue burden on a say they are common-
by late June, four months of the poorest states in the One requires abortion fa- woman’s constitutional sense measures intended
before the presidential U.S. cilities to be constructed right to an abortion. If al- to protect women. Abor-
election. States have enacted a like surgical centers. The lowed to take full effect, tion rights groups say the
The justices said Friday wave of measures in re- other allows doctors to the law would leave no- regulations have only one
they will hear argu- cent years that have perform abortions at clin- abortion clinics in the hun- aim: to make it harder, if
ments over a Texas law placed restrictions on ics only if they have ad- dreds of miles (kilometers) not impossible, for women
that would leave about when in a pregnancy- mitting privileges at a lo- that lie west of San Anto- to getabortions in Texas.q