8th Circuit Update

From the Argus Leader:

PLANNED PARENTHOOD SEEKS INJUNCTION
Lawyers for Planned Parenthood this week filed for an injunction in federal court after state officials warned the agency that it could be sanctioned if it fails to use state-approved abortion disclosure forms.

The filing is the latest round in a four-year court battle between the state of South Dakota and Planned Parenthood of Minnesota and the Dakotas.

Planned Parenthood is resisting demands that it use specific, state-approved language in the paperwork that is presented to women seeking abortions.

The organization objects to its doctors being forced to use phrases that Planned Parenthood considers ideological, such as: "That the abortion will terminate the life of a whole, separate, unique, living human being."

State Health Department officials declined to comment on what sanctions Planned Parenthood might face, or if there is a deadline for the agency to comply with the health department's demand.

Read more

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Insight into the Anti-Choice Movement

There was a post on Laura Flander’s gritTV that has some interesting insights in to the anti-choice movement and it’s influence in the 8th court circuit ruling:

In the long and winding road from Bray to the 8th Circuit Ct. of Appeals decision last week in Planned Parenthood v Rounds, et al., arising out of South Dakota, we've been put through some headspinning and conflated polemics by antiabortion activists and lawyers and legislators. In a law review published recently, after the Supreme Court's funky rulings in Gonzales v Carhart but prior to the 8th Circuit opinion, Ronald Turner says of the "women's regret" strategy:

“Positing the postabortion syndrome in books and articles; determinedly adhering to the theory in the face of the opposition of scientists and established organizations and others; filing amicus briefs calling judicial attention to antiabortion advocates’ concerns about “women’s regret” and postabortion psychological and other problems; obtaining express recognition of those concerns in a published opinion by a federal appellate court judge; playing an active and prominent role in South Dakota’s study of and effort to outlaw abortion: all of these actions were part of a committed and perseverant campaign to rewrite the narrative and to change the terms of the abortion-rights debate. This sustained politico-legal movement has now achieved one of the desired objectives of the antiabortion position—the Supreme Court’s placement of its imprimatur on the “women’s regret” rationale.”

I recommend reading the rest---Check it out HERE.

Kate Looby on SD Public Radio

Karina

Web Editor

Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota Action Fund

Did you miss Kate Looby's appearance on South Dakota Public Radio yesterday? Never Fear! You can listen on line HERE!

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Differing Interpretations

 

by Karina
Web Editor
Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota Action Fund

The ACLU has a good explanation of Planned Parenthood v. Rounds the 8th circuit decision issued this past Friday, as well as discussion of similar precedence in other states.

Via ACLU

The law also forces a doctor to tell his or her patient that she "has an existing relationship with that unborn human being" and if she has an abortion, "her existing relationship and her existing constitutional rights with regards to that relationship will be terminated."

The ACLU points out that a similar law was unanimously struck down in New Jersey.  It is quite stunning how different courts can interpret a law.  The New Jersey courts wrote:

We know of no common law duty requiring a physician to instruct the woman that the embryo is an ‘existing human being,' and suggesting that an abortion is tantamount to murder. There is not even remotely a consensus among New Jersey's medical community or citizenry that plaintiff's assertions are medical facts, as opposed to firmly held, moral philosophical and religious beliefs.

With the same law, the 8th circuit court came to the opposite conclusion. They must be versed in medicine, as well as law because somehow manage to determine that the law is supported by scientific, biological, fact-contrary to the New Jersey ruling's intepretation.

Via AP

Planned Parenthood has failed to show that the information to be given to women seeking abortions is untruthful, misleading or irrelevant to the woman's decision, the appeals court majority said. Taking into account definitions in the law, the information required to be given is biological in nature, so Planned Parenthood has not shown the information is ideological, the decision said.

Sarah Stoesz, President and CEO of Planned Parenthood Minnesota explained the final implications of this ruling:

[The] decision places South Dakota politicians between women and the doctors who care for them by requiring health care providers to deliver a state-mandated ideology," Stoesz said. "Planned Parenthood's top priorities are the health and safety of our patients, and we will continue to provide the best health care possible under the ruling.

 

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8th Circuit Upholds State Law that Forces Ideology

(Sioux Falls, SD) The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit in St. Louis today issued a 7 to 4 ruling against Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota in Planned Parenthood v. Rounds, a case challenging a South Dakota law that requires doctors to give ideologically charged, inaccurate information to women seeking abortion care. This case was brought by Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota (PPMNS).

Planned Parenthood challenged the law in federal district court to protect women in South Dakota who rely on Planned Parenthood for abortion care. The lawsuit was brought on a number of bases, including that it violates doctors’ and patients’ constitutional rights by interfering in the doctor/patient relationship.

“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 Kate Looby, South Dakota State Director for PPMNS.

“Nowhere in the United States is it more difficult to obtain an abortion than in South Dakota. This ruling adds yet another barrier between women and the safe, legal reproductive health care they need,” said Looby.

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 opportunity to view a sonogram.

Passed by the South Dakota legislature in 2005, this law was pushed through by the same politicians and special interest groups who tried to ban all abortions in South Dakota in 2006. In a critical victory for women’s health, the people of South Dakota voted down the dangerous ban by a margin of 12 points in the November 2006 elections.

Another abortion ban, crafted by these same special interest groups specifically to challenge Roe v. Wade, is slated for the ballot in South Dakota this November.

“Today’s decision places South Dakota politicians between women and the doctors who care for them by requiring health care providers to deliver a state-mandated ideology,” Looby said. “Planned Parenthood’s top priorities are the health and safety of our patients, and we will continue to provide the best health care possible under the ruling.”

“This case is about whether women in South Dakota should be able to make personal health care decisions with their doctors – free from political interference,” said Mimi Liu, PPFA Staff Attorney. “Planned Parenthood asked the court to strike down this unconstitutional law and protect the doctor-patient relationship from government interference and state-mandated ideology.”

Prior federal court rulings have supported Planned Parenthood’s position, and the district court originally concluded that the law is likely unconstitutional and granted a preliminary injunction against it. South Dakota and two intervenors appealed that decision, and, on October 30, 2006, a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit again ruled 2-1 to affirm the preliminary injunction. The State and the intervenors then asked that the panel’s decision be reviewed by all the judges of the Eighth Circuit, in an “en banc” review.

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