UPDATE 8/12/09: State threatens to suspend Planned Parenthood license
-- From "Judge vows to rule soon in abortion warning case" by Josh Verges, Sioux Falls Argus Leader 7/18/09
U.S. District Judge Karen Schreier . . . could decide to send the case to a trial.
Planned Parenthood, which operates the state's only abortion clinic, asked a judge to rule that provisions of the law aimed at providing women with factual information before an abortion are too vague or simply inaccurate.
Lawyers for the state and the Alpha Center, a Sioux Falls crisis pregnancy center that intervened in the case, accused Planned Parenthood of relying on bad research.
Planned Parenthood challenged the law soon after it went into effect in 2005, but its doctors began complying in July 2008 only when the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals lifted a preliminary injunction.
Even then, the Department of Health warned that the information being provided to patients does not match the language of the law.
Planned Parenthood objects to several statements doctors are required to tell patients: that abortion ends the life of a "whole, separate, unique, living human being"; that pregnant women's relationships with their unborn children are protected by the U.S. constitution and state laws; and that suicide and suicidal ideation is a "known medical risk."
The courts have ruled the clinic need not use the exact form created by the Department of Health, but the state says the form [that Planned Parenthood] abortion doctors are [currently] using does not comply with the law.
To read the entire article above, CLICK HERE.
From "Planned Parenthood accused of 'defying' court decision" by Bob Unruh © 2009 WorldNetDaily 7/31/09
In a letter to the state, a copy of which was obtained by WND, a number of interveners in a lawsuit by Planned Parenthood against South Dakota over the law express alarm that even a full year after the appellate court issued its ruling, the organization apparently remains in deliberate violation.
Doneen Hollingsworth, the secretary of health for the state, told WND in a statement the agency "is required to inspect abortion facilities and enforce applicable laws and regulations. In order to ensure compliance with the law, the department met with Planned Parenthood representatives July 30 regarding findings from its most recent inspection.
The letter, dated just days ago, said, "The statute expressly states that the physician's disclosure statement must include the disclosure 'that the abortion will terminate the life of a whole, separate, unique, living human being.' The term 'human being' is defined by S.D.C.L. 34-23A-1(4) in the biological sense."
Also, the letter said, "The Disclosure Form created by the South Dakota Department of Health, as it relates to the Human Being Disclosure, accurately reflects the command of the Statute, and is the only wording of the disclosure which would properly comply. Your language is correct as written: '1-b) The abortion will terminate the life of a whole, separate, unique, living human being; the term 'Human Being' means, for the purpose of this and following disclosures, 'an individual living member of the species Homo sapiens during its embryonic and fetal ages.'"
It continued, "The en banc panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals held that this disclosure as written was constitutional. Planned Parenthood v. Rounds, 530 F.3d 724 (8th Cir. 2008) (en banc). If Planned Parenthood does not use the language drafted by the Department of Health, it is not in compliance with the statute," the letter said.
"The language used by Planned Parenthood does not comply: 'South Dakota requires that you be informed that, as a matter of biology, the abortion will terminate a developing, living organism (an 'embryo' or 'fetus') of the human species ('Homo sapiens') that, in the absence of abnormality, has a complete, separate genetic makeup that is unique to that embryo or fetus,'" the letter said.
"The statute requires a straight forward statement that is easily understood by a lay person, that the abortion terminates the life of a human being. The precise language was carefully selected by the legislature. The language used by Planned Parenthood not only fails to use the clear and proper language, but Planned Parenthood’s language is inaccurate, incomplete, misleading and very confusing," the letter said.
The South Dakota law . . . requires abortionists to explain to women that:
- The abortion will terminate the life of a whole, separate, unique, living human being;
- The pregnant woman has an existing relationship with that unborn human being and that the relationship enjoys protection under the United States Constitution and under the laws of South Dakota;
- That by having an abortion, her existing relationship and her existing constitutional rights with regards to that relationship will be terminated;
- A description of all known medical risks of the procedure, including depression and related psychological stress and increased risk of suicide
