Today’s ultrasound decision is a big defeat for anti-choice warriors
http://www.salon.com/2015/06/15/supreme_court_shuts_down_scott_walker_todays_ultrasound_decision_is_a_big_defeat_for_anti_choice_warriors/
The Supreme Court on Monday declined to review North Carolina’s forced ultrasound law, rendering it unenforceable and marking a rare bit of good news about reproductive freedom to come out of the high court. (This time last year, I was in the midst of a prolonged Charlie Brown sad walk over Hobby Lobby and buffer zones.)
This is the end of the road for the state’s condescendingly-titled A Woman’s Right to Know Act, which was challenged by a coalition of groups on First Amendment grounds. The law required doctors to give patients seeking abortion care detailed descriptions of their ultrasounds and follow a script that, according to a lower court ruling striking down the law, had an “ideological message in favor of carrying a pregnancy to term.”
A woman could avert her eyes from the ultrasound screen or plug up her ears to avoid hearing the script, but doctors were legally required to keep going or risk losing their license.
It was a particularly draconian bit of compelled speech forced on patients in a particularly vulnerable position (half naked on an exam table, hours before a medical procedure), which is why it was blocked last year by a panel of judges on the Fourth Circuit. That court’s ruling gives some useful context for the severity of the law as it compares to other informed consent laws, so it’s worth including here:
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