S.D. Judge Upholds 'Human Life' Provision Of Abortion Law, Rejects Other Mandates

Main Category: Abortion
Also Included In: Litigation / Medical Malpractice
Article Date: 24 Aug 2009 - 1:00 PDT

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U.S. District Judge Karen Schreier on Thursday upheld a provision in a 2005 South Dakota law that requires doctors to inform women seeking abortions that the procedure "will terminate the life of a whole, separate, unique, living human being," the AP/Seattle Times reports. However, Schreier overturned disclosure provisions that abortion increases the likelihood of suicide and that the woman has an existing relationship with the fetus. The judge also ruled that physicians can provide more information than the language in the bill, such as that the phrase "human being" can be used in a biological and not ideological sense, according to the AP/Times.

The decision ends a lawsuit brought against the state by Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota in response to the law. Schreier temporarily prevented the law from taking effect after it passed, but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit overruled the order in 2008. South Dakota Assistant Attorney General John Guhin, who argued the lawsuit for the state, and Sarah Stoesz, president and CEO of PPMNDSD, said Schreier largely followed the appeals court's decision. Both also said that they will consider whether to appeal the issues they lost (Walker, AP/Seattle Times, 8/20).

After the ruling was handed down, both sides of the lawsuit "claimed victory," the AP/New York Times reports. Mimi Liu, a lawyer for Planned Parenthood, said, "We're relieved our doctors have the ability to use their best medical judgment to explain and make sure what women understand is biological and factual information, not an ideological mandate from the state."

Abortion-rights opponent Leslee Unruh -- founder of the Alpha Center pregnancy counseling center in Sioux Falls, S.D., which was one of the intervening parties in the lawsuit -- called the ruling upholding the "human being" provision "a huge, fatal blow" to abortion-rights supporters and the "unraveling" of Roe v. Wade. Unruh said she plans to appeal the decisions on the suicide and relationship provisions (AP/New York Times, 8/21).

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