PPMNS v Rounds Ruling

June 27, 2008

For Immediate Release

Sioux Falls, SD – Today the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit ruled in the case of PPMNS v Rounds, vacating the preliminary injunction and sending the case back to the district court for further proceedings, upholding a South Dakota law requiring doctors to recite an ideologically loaded script to women seeking abortion care.

“We have always believed and worked hard to ensure that every woman has the best, medically accurate information so that she can make the right decision for her unique circumstances. But this law is interference, not information,” said PPMNS South Dakota State Director Kate Looby.

Prior rulings have supported Planned Parenthood’s position that the statute violates free speech under the First Amendment. The law, passed by the South Dakota legislature in 2005, was pushed through by the same politicians who tried to ban all abortions in South Dakota in 2006.

South Dakota has some of the most restrictive abortion laws in the nation and one of the lowest rates of abortion in the U.S. No abortion can be performed in the state without a 24-hour waiting period, mandatory education about the woman's options, parental notification in the case of a minor and the review of a sonogram.

Another abortion ban, crafted specifically to overturn Roe v. Wade, is slated for the ballot in South Dakota this November. “Today’s ruling means that nowhere in the country is it more difficult for a woman to obtain an abortion than in South Dakota,” said Looby.

Looby will comment further on the case once legal counsel has analyzed the decision.

For 80 years Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota has worked in our region to make sure all people have the information and the means to make free and responsible decisions about whether and when to have children. Planned Parenthood operates 29 clinics in Minnesota and South Dakota, providing quality and affordable family planning, reproductive health care services and education to more than 60,000 women and men each year.

Visit us on the web at www.ppmns.org