Texas' new sonogram law is challenged

AUSTIN — A reproductive rights group has filed a lawsuit against a newly signed Texas law requiring doctors to conduct a sonogram before performing an abortion.

The Center for Reproductive Rights filed the lawsuit Monday, claiming that the new law violates the First Amendment rights of both the doctor and the patient and discriminates against women. The group says the law forces doctors to deliver “politically motivated communications” to women.

The law, which goes into effect Sept. 1, requires a doctor to describe the fetus’ features and allow women to hear the fetal heartbeat. Exemptions are allowed only cases of rape or incest and when the fetus has fatal abnormalities.

Read more: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/health/7608581.html#ixzz1PCDyIsqz

Press Release
CRR Files Lawsuit Challenging Texas Abortion Sonogram Law



06.13.11 - (PRESS RELEASE) Today, the Center for Reproductive Rights filed a class action lawsuit against Texas’ new abortion ultrasound law on behalf of Texas medical providers performing abortions and their patients. The law prohibits a woman from getting an abortion unless the doctor providing the abortion performs an ultrasound on the woman, takes steps to show and describe the ultrasound images to her, and plays the sound of the fetal heart. The doctor must personally place the images where the woman can see them, and describe the images in detail, regardless of her wishes. The woman must then wait at least 24-hours before she can obtain an abortion (the waiting period is two-hours for women who live more than 100 miles from an abortion provider). With the enactment of this law, Texas joins Oklahoma in having the most extreme ultrasound requirements in the country.

“This law barges in on the doctor-patient relationship” said Nancy Northup, president of the Center for Reproductive Rights. “When you go to the doctor, you expect to be given information that is relevant to your particular medical decisions and circumstances, not to be held hostage and subjected to an anti-choice agenda.”

The Center argues that the ultrasound requirements violate the First Amendment rights of both the doctor and the patient by forcing physicians to deliver politically-motivated communications to women, regardless of their wishes. The Center also argues that the law discriminates against women by subjecting them to paternalistic “protections” not imposed on men.

“This law is patronizing to women in Texas. It is based on outdated stereotypes that women are too immature or too incompetent to make important decisions,” said Northup. “It’s as if the politician has charged into the doctor’s office and told the woman, ‘Honey, you just don’t understand what you are doing. Let me explain it to you and tell you what to do.’”

In addition, the Center argues that the ultrasound requirements violate basic principles of medical ethics and serve no medical purpose.
The Center filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas in Austin, on behalf of Texas Medical Providers Performing Abortion Services, a plaintiff class of physicians and medical facilities that provide abortions. The class members bring the suit on behalf of themselves and their patients seeking abortion. The class is represented by plaintiffs Metropolitan Ob-Gyn, P.A., D/B/A Reproductive Services of San Antonio and Dr. Alan Braid.

Postcards from the Lege blog 7/1/11

Court asked to bar enforcement of sonogram law

A New York abortion-rights group has asked a U.S. court to stop Texas from enforcing the new pre-abortion sonogram law, which takes effect Sept. 1.

The Center for Reproductive Rights has sued Texas to overturn the law, and the group today asked U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks to issue a preliminary injunction barring its enforcement while that case proceeds.

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The sonogram law requires doctors to perform a sonogram at least 24 hours before an abortion is performed. The doctor must explain what the sonogram reveals to the woman, who can decline viewing the sonogram or listening to the fetal heartbeat.

AAS 7/6/11
Federal court is asked to halt Texas' new sonogram law

An abortion rights group on Wednesday asked U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks to halt enforcement of the state's new pre-abortion sonogram law, saying it is unconstitutionally vague and an improper intrusion on doctors' free speech rights.

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A ruling is at least a month away. After Wednesday's hearing in his Austin courtroom, Sparks requested additional briefs from both sides, giving the center 15 days to supplement its arguments and then the state attorney general's office 15 days to respond.

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Sparks also said the punishment for violating the sonogram law — potential jail time and loss of a medical license — "kind of gets my attention," particularly because the statute does not define certain standards. For example, Sparks noted, a doctor can be held accountable for not explaining a sonogram "in a manner understandable to a lay person."

Kane said the language was self-explanatory, but Sparks expressed skepticism about an "everyone knows it" legal standard.

Sparks paid particular attention to Kane's argument that the law, as written, cannot be completely swept aside by injunction, ordering both sides to address the topic in their next briefs.