Prolife laws now face court battles

As with nearly every prolife law, prolifers have to win battles in courthouse as well as the legislature.

The Kansas law regulating abortion clinics which would have closed two abortion clinics has been temporarily blocked from taking effect.

In court, the state attorney general's office argued there was no good reason to stop the licensing process and that unlicensed clinics could still do up to five emergency abortions a month. They also said the Planned Parenthood license disproved claims that the rules were solely designed to shut down abortion services.

U.S. District Judge Carlos Murguia ruled the providers showed sufficient evidence for their case, and issued a temporary injunction on the new rules until the lawsuit goes to trial.

The trial begins August 16.


A federal judge will hear arguments on a new law in Texas which requires abortionists to perform ultrasounds before abortion.

The so-called sonogram law, which takes effect Sept. 1, requires a doctor to describe the fetus' features and allow the pregnant woman to hear the fetal heartbeat. The law does not allow women to opt-out of the description. Exemptions are allowed only cases of rape or incest and when the fetus has fatal abnormalities.

The Center for Reproductive Rights filed the federal lawsuit last month, arguing that the law is unconstitutional. U.S. District Court Judge Sam Sparks will hear the case in Austin.

The group is asking Sparks to impose an injunction to keep the law from being enforced until the lawsuit is resolved.

Judge Sparks was nominated to his position by President George H. W. Bush.

Abortion proponents in Kansas are now also trying to raise patient privacy as an issue with the new regulations, as the regulations require abortionists to have their records available at the clinic for inspection. The article lists a number of other states which also require abortionists to allow their medical records to be inspected.


A lawsuit against a South Dakota law which would have created a 72-hour waiting period has been grant temporary injunction.

In a 61-page opinion granting the preliminary injunction, U.S. District Court Chief Judge Karen Schreier found Planned Parenthood's challenge of the counseling centers and waiting period would likely succeed.

The help center requirements "constitute a substantial obstacle to a woman's decision to obtain an abortion because they force a woman against her will to disclose her decision to undergo an abortion to a pregnancy help center employee before she can undergo an abortion," Schreier wrote.

Schreier, a Clinton nominee, has ruled on a number of South Dakota's abortion restrictions and has consistently ruled against them.