8th Circuit Says S.D. Can Enforce Law Requiring Doctors To Tell Women Abortion Ends Human Life

Main Category: Abortion
Article Date: 01 Jul 2008 - 5:00 PST

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On Friday, the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis ruled 7-4 that South Dakota can begin enforcing a 2005 law that requires physicians to tell women seeking abortions that the procedure "will terminate the life of a whole, separate, unique, living human being," the AP/Google.com reports.

However, the decision sends the case back to U.S. District Judge Karen Schreier in Rapid City, S.D., to determine whether the law is constitutional. Schreier had issued a temporary injunction blocking enforcement of the regulation pending a ruling on the challenge to the law filed by Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota. Planned Parenthood contends that the law violates doctors' free speech rights and places an undue burden on women seeking abortions.

A three-judge panel of the 8th Circuit Court upheld the injunction, but the full appellate court reversed it, saying Planned Parenthood had not provided enough evidence that its challenge would be successful. According to the majority opinion, Planned Parenthood failed to show that the required statement directed at a woman seeking abortion is ideological, untruthful, misleading or irrelevant to the woman's decision. Harold Cassidy, a lawyer representing two pregnancy counseling centers that support the law, said, "We think it's a big victory for the women obviously to be given accurate information in order to make a decision not only for the child, but also for herself."

Sarah Stoesz, president of Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, said the law will force physicians to read ideological language to women. "They are imposing compelled speech on doctors," Stoesz said, adding, "It is not about providing information to women. It is about intruding in the doctor-patient relationship. It is unprecedented and extremely outrageous" (Brokaw, AP/Google.com, 6/27).

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