South Dakota abortion language battle continues
South Dakota abortion language battle continues
Disagreement is over physician script
Planned Parenthood's entity serving Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota (PPMNS) is continuing legal action in an effort to have certain legislatively mandated scripts to be read by physicians to women seeking abortions in South Dakota.
A South Dakota law was passed in 2005 that required physicians there to tell women seeking abortions certain statements, including, according PPMNS:
- "the abortion will terminate the life of a whole, separate, unique, living human being." This is referred to as "biological disclosure."
- "the pregnant woman has an existing relationship with that unborn and that the relationship enjoys protection under the United States Constitution and under the laws of South Dakota" and "by having an abortion, her existing relationship and her existing constitutional rights with regards to that relationship will be terminated." This is known as a "relationship disclosure."
- an "increased risk of suicide ideation and suicide" is a "known medical risk" of abortion. This is referred to as the "suicide disclosure."
PPMNS v. Rounds challenged the constitutionality of the 2005 law.
Earlier this year, Planned Parenthood Federation of American (PPFA) and PPMNS reported that the U.S. District Court in South Dakota struck down "major portions" of that 2005 law.
In a news release, PPFA and PPMNS reported that "specifically, the opinion by Judge Karen Schreier struck down the provisions of the … law that required telling the patient that an 'increased risk of suicide ideation and suicide' is a 'known medical risk' of abortion, and that having an abortion terminates 'an existing relationship between the woman and fetus.'"
According to PPFA and PPMNS, "Judge Schreier found that requiring these statements is unconstitutional because they are 'untruthful and misleading.'"
"We are pleased that the court recognized these provisions of the statute for what they are, pure ideology, not medical information, and that women in South Dakota should be able to make private health care decisions with their doctor — free from interference of government and politicians," said Sarah Stoesz, CEO of PPMNS in a statement in August following the decision.
However, according to PPMNS, the state appealed that part of the decision, to the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals.
According to an e-mailed question and response, PPMNS says, "Briefing in the case is due in the next few months."
PPMNS responded to an MEA question saying that "the state is currently requiring that we say abortion will terminate the life of a whole, separate, unique living human being. It is a criminal law, so our doctors are subject to criminal penalties, including imprisonment, if they do not give the script before performing the abortion procedure."
Farr Curlin, MD, assistant professor of medicine at the University of Chicago School of Medicine, described such a law as a "clear and obvious effort to reduce the number of abortions that are done. I think in general it's the wrong way to go about that. Seeking to reduce the number of abortions is something with which I have a lot of sympathy — it's not consistent with the practice of medicine at all. But, that's the wrong way to do it. I mean, it's basically making the doctor merely a tool of some other societal goal to reduce abortions. And again, its demoralizes the profession, because you're telling them to say [something] that they may, in their judgment, think is false," Curlin says.
Source
- Farr A. Curlin, MD, Assistant Professor of Medicine, University of Chicago School of Medicine, Chicago.
- Planned Parenthood of Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota.
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