Abortion law ruling expected today

| Thursday, June 30, 2005

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RAPID CITY (AP) — U.S. District Judge Karen Schreier said she will rule by the end of the day Thursday whether to prevent a new state law on abortions from taking effect Friday.

The legislation, passed this year, would require abortion doctors to inform women that abortion ends the lives of human beings.

A two-hour hearing on a temporary injunction ended late Wednesday morning in U.S. District Court in Rapid City. A hearing on a permanent injunction is scheduled for October.

Lawyers for Planned Parenthood of Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota told Schreier that the pending law is ideological and too vague.

However, assistant attorney general John Guhin, a lawyer for the state, said that requiring doctors to tell patients that factors such as depression and suicide could occur after abortions is, in fact, based on science.

At the October hearing, Planned Parenthood will argue that studies have shown the contentions about depression and suicide are inaccurate, Tim Branson of Minneapolis, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said.

Requiring doctors and patients to certify in writing that abortion would end the life of a human being "is tantamount to telling a patient that abortion is homicide," he said.

The state already provides information on abortions, but only five of 819 women at the Planned Parenthood clinic accepted the materials, Branson said.

The women are saying "they do not want to look at what the government is telling them," Branson said.

"I don't have to go to an X-rated movie to know I don't want to go to an X-rated movie. There is a serious unwilling listener problem in this statute," he said. "There is no free choice reserved under this statute."

The Legislature requires that a woman get counseling and information and that she understands all the points covered, Guhin said. "There is no controversy over whether an unborn child is a human being," he said.

All that has to be certified is that women understand what the Legislature has said about the termination of a human being, Guhin said. After the certification, doctors can say whether they believe it to be true or not true, he said, adding that the state is not restricting a doctor's right to free speech.

The process would be "a 10-minute deal," Guhin said.

Planned Parenthood in Sioux Falls is not interested in protecting the rights of women but is interested in money, Guhin said. Planned Parenthood gets thousands of dollars a year from performing abortions, he said.

"They have a vested financial interest in not providing informed consent," Guhin said.

A 1973 U.S. Supreme Court ruling affirmed a woman's constitutional right to an abortion. However, the high court has said states may place reasonable restrictions on abortion.