S.D. Law Requiring Physicians To Tell Patients That Abortion Ends Human Life Goes Into Effect

Main Category: Abortion
Also Included In: Women's Health / Gynecology
Article Date: 22 Jul 2008 - 6:00 PDT

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Friday, physicians in South Dakota have been required to comply with a 2005 state law stating that a woman seeking an abortion be told that the procedure "will terminate the life of a whole separate, unique living human being," the Washington Post reports. According to the law, women also have to be told that they have "an existing relationship" with their fetuses that is protected by the US Constitution and that her "existing constitutional rights with regards to that relationship will be terminated." Doctors also must state that "abortion increases the risk of suicide ideation and suicide." A woman must certify in writing that she understands no earlier than two hours before the procedure is conducted (Slevin, Washington Post, 7/20).

State Attorney General Larry Long (R) on Thursday said, "Any entity to whom the law applies should be in compliance tomorrow." Kathi Di Nicola, spokesperson for Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, said that the group's clinic in Sioux Falls, S.D. -- the state's only acknowledged facility that provides abortions -- will comply with the law. "We will do what the law says," Di Nicola said, adding, "[B]ut clearly the law is extreme and flawed and wrong" (Brokaw, AP/Google.com, 7/17).

Last month, the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis ruled 7-4 to lift a temporary injunction preventing the law from going into effect. The ruling reversed an earlier decision of a three-judge panel of the same court. The latest ruling sent 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 interferes with the doctor-patient relationship, violates doctors' free speech rights and requires doctors to tell patients untrue things (Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 6/30).

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