By Marcia Coyle, From The National Law Journal
North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper on Monday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review a federal appellate ruling striking down the state’s law requiring women who seek an abortion to view a narrated ultrasound image prior to the procedure.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in December held that the law violates the First Amendment rights of physicians by compelling delivery of ideological information “irrespective of the needs or wants of the patient” in a manner “intended to convey not the risks and benefits of the medical procedure to the patient’s own health, but rather the full weight of the state’s moral condemnation.”
The state law, a unanimous three-judge panel wrote, transforms “the physician into the mouthpiece of the state,” undermining the trust “that is necessary for facilitating healthy doctor-patient relationships and, through them, successful treatment outcomes.”
In Walker-McGill v. Stuart, Cooper contends the panel’s decision “irreconcilably conflicts” with the decisions of the Fifth and Eighth Circuits on an issue of “great national significance—the ability of a state to enact statutory requirements that compel physician speech to provide truthful information relevant to a patient’s informed consent prior to an abortion.”
States, he adds, have “undeniable” power to regulate professional activities, including the medical profession, and North Carolina’s law is consistent with the First Amendment as a reasonable regulation of medical practice.
The law was challenged in 2011 on behalf of several North Carolina physicians and medical practices by the Center for Reproductive Rights, the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of North Carolina Legal Foundation, Planned Parenthood and the law firm O’Melveny & Myers.
“The only purpose for this intrusive and unconstitutional law is to shame and demean women who have made the very personal, private decision to end a pregnancy,” said Nancy Northup, president and chief executive officer of the Center for Reproductive Rights, in a written statement. “We will continue to take all steps necessary to protect the First Amendment and ensure doctors are never forced to serve as mouthpieces for politicians.”
In the petition, Cooper writes that 24 states require an ultrasound to be performed or offered to a woman before an abortion. Five states have enacted essentially the same display-and-describe requirement at issue in this case, and an additional four states require a physician to provide a simultaneous explanation of an ultrasound image upon a woman’s request.
Northup said the North Carolina law, passed in 2011 over the veto of then-Gov. Bev Perdue, is one of the most extreme ultrasound laws in the country. In November 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review a similar law from Oklahoma, allowing to stand a ruling from the Oklahoma Supreme Court blocking the measure as unconstitutional.
Although the law would allow the woman to avert her eyes from the ultrasound screen and to refuse to hear the explanation of the images, the North Carolina challengers said, the provider would still be required to place the images in front of her and describe them in detail over her objection.
The law applies even if a woman does not want to see the ultrasound, and makes no exception for rape, incest, serious health risks or severe fetal anomalies.
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For more on this story go to: http://www.nationallawjournal.com/id=1202721399701/State-Asks-Supreme-Court-to-Rule-on-Fetal-Ultrasound-Law#ixzz3VIyrLxgv