Court allows Texas to force women into medically unnecessary sonograms

From Raw Story: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/01/10/court-allows-texas-to-force-women-into-medically-unnecessary-sonograms/

By Stephen C. Webster

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on Tuesday that Texas may enforce a law passed last year which requires women seeking abortion services to undergo an invasive, medically unnecessary trans-vaginal sonogram procedure before ending their pregnancy.

The ruling overturned a restraining order issued by a lower court in August by striking down the argument that requiring doctors to show women their fetus and hear sounds from inside their uterus stands as a type of “compelled speech” that violates the doctors’ rights.

However, the Fifth Circuit Court said that is not the case, citing a 1992 Supreme Court decision that placed “informed consent” above the doctors’ right to be free from “compelled speech.” The legal standard for regulations on “compelled speech,” the 1992 decision held, is that the information a doctor is being ordered to present must be “truthful, non-misleading and relevant.”

“The required disclosures of a sonogram, the fetal heartbeat, and their medical descriptions are the epitome of truthful, non-misleading information,” Judge Edith H. Jones opined, striking down the Center for Reproductive Rights’ challenge to the law.

Continue reading at: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/01/10/court-allows-texas-to-force-women-into-medically-unnecessary-sonograms/