Court To Hear Abortion Law Challenge

PIERRE, S.D. — A federal appeals court has agreed to rehear a challenge of a 2005 South Dakota law that would require doctors to tell women seeking abortions that the procedure ends a human life.

The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Tuesday that the full 11-judge court will hear arguments April 11 in St. Louis.

A three-judge panel of the court had ruled 2–1 in October to uphold a lower court's order blocking enforcement of the law until that court decides a lawsuit challenging its constitutionality.

The appeals court only grants about one in 50 requests for a full court rehearing, state Attorney General Larry Long said yesterday. "This is a rare and unusual event, and we're just delighted."

The temporary restraining order was issued by U.S. District Judge Karen Schreier in Rapid City, who said plaintiff Planned Parenthood has a fair chance of succeeding in its claim that the law violates doctors' free-speech rights.

The 2005 measure is not a direct challenge to the constitutionality of abortion but is aimed at testing the limits of what a state can require women be told before getting abortions. It would require doctors to tell women that abortions end human lives, may cause serious psychological problems, and that the women have legal relationships with her unborn children that are ended by abortion.

Doctor would have to give the patients a document including the statement that "the abortion will terminate the life of a whole, separate, unique, living human being."