Dr. Tiller’s clinic will remain closed permanently. Closest abortion capacity to Wichita — not late-term abortion, any abortion —is now a three-hour drive away. Legal abortion is increasingly unavailable to women in rural areas and in the South, Midwest, and Mountain West.
And what are you going to do about it? Megan McArdle thinks that passing additional protective legislation would just further enrage abortion opponents. On the other hand, letting them taste blood will just encourage more of them to murder more doctors. Rewarding bad behavior is generally a bad plan. In this case, inaction = reward.
Update A reader answers the “What are you going to do?” challenge:
Require every hospital accepting federal funds to provide abortion services, either directly or under agreements with clinics in the same cities. (Just as transit systems must provide handicapped-accessible services directly or through contract with another operator.)
