Women’s Advocates Assail Ruling Blocking Abortion

Abortion rights advocates are urging courts to immediately overturn a judge’s unusual decision to temporarily bar a woman from ending her pregnancy.

The order came in a lawsuit filed by a man who is seeking to force former girlfriend Tanya Meyers to carry her pregnancy to term. John Stachokus says he is willing to take full or partial custody of the child and claims in his suit that Meyers is being pressured by her mother to have the procedure.

Lawyers representing Meyers called the order “a miscarriage of justice,” while abortion opponents and fathers’ rights groups praised it, saying men should have a say in the outcome of a pregnancy they helped create.

Luzerne County Common Pleas Judge Michael Conahan issued the temporary injunction Wednesday. He did not say when he would issue a final ruling but asked both sides to submit briefs by today.

Until then, Meyers, 23, who is 10 weeks’ pregnant, has been forbidden from having an abortion.

“There is truly no legal basis for the injunction to be in effect; it’s a miscarriage of justice, an abuse of the legal system and an absolute disgrace,” said Susan Fritchey, an attorney for the Women’s Law Project and co-counsel for Meyers.

Fritchey and other women’s advocates said the judge’s decision runs counter to legal precedents establishing that the decision whether to have an abortion is the woman’s choice alone.

Meyers’ lawyers filed an emergency appeal Thursday in state Superior Court in Harrisburg seeking to lift the injunction. That court instead asked Stachokus’ attorney to submit additional legal papers by Tuesday.

Meyers’ lawyers filed a similar petition with the state Supreme Court, which denied the appeal but reserved the right to revisit the issue.

Antiabortion and fathers’ rights groups defended the judge’s action.

“We talk about fathers negatively so often, about how they don’t want to be responsible for their children, and this guy is doing everything he can to be sure his unborn child isn’t aborted,” said Dianna Thompson, executive director of the American Coalition for Fathers and Children.

Stachokus’ attorney, John P. Williamson, said Meyers, who has a 2-year-old child, had been coerced into deciding on an abortion by her mother.

Neither Meyers nor Stachokus returned calls seeking comment.