Posted on 01/13/2012 2:03:07 PM PST by Morgana
January 13, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Days after ruling that Texas’s sonogram law is constitutional, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals has issued another ruling favorable to the law, saying that it can be enforced immediately.
The ruling dashes the hopes of pro-abortion activists that there might be a delay before the green light was given enforcement, possibly sufficient to mount a challenge to the court’s ruling by asking for a rehearing.
It is now up to the Texas Department of Health Services to come up with a timeline for the implementation of the law, reports CNN. A spokesman for the Department told CNN that enforcement could begin within 30 days.
On Tuesday a three-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals lifted a temporary injunction against the law and advised U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks to reverse his ruling against the law from last August.
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The court also flatly contradicted opponents’ claims that the law, which requires doctors to disclose details of the baby’s limb and organ development, was an assault on abortionists’ constitutional rights as a form of forced-speech.
Pro-life advocates hailed today’s decision mandating the law’s enforcement.
“This order is a triumph for women and the unborn,” said Texas Right to Life in a statement.
“The sonogram law was passed overwhelmingly by the 82nd Legislature, because Texan women deserve to receive accurate medical information from all physicians. When women are given all the pertinent medical information they need to make a truly informed decision regarding their pregnancies, they will choose Life.”
Under the law abortionists will have to offer women the option of hearing the heartbeat of their unborn child and seeing the child’s image in a sonogram, a procedure normally performed before abortions but normally out of sight of the mother. The mother may decline; however, the abortionist must describe her unborn child at that stage in his development, and describe what organs and limbs are formed as well. Exceptions are made when the unborn child was conceived in rape or incest, or suffers from a severe disability.
Good.
Woo hoo!!
Yess!!!
Gotta give credit to our Governor (and next president) Rick Perry who pushed this through.
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YES!!!
This is the ONE BEST way to curtail/end abortions!
This works and does not have the downside of: The “demonstrations” in front of abortion clinics do more to create negative publicity to the cause that can end up looking as if we are harrassing women; instead of helping them.
I’m pro life and live in TX, but this is a stupid law. Who pays for all the sonograms? What if I don’t want that machine put on my belly? The Supremes will rule this stupid also. Just costing us a lot of money in TX for some politician’s idea to help him get elected.
Are you for real?
Who pays for all the sonograms?
(The same people who pay for the abortions these sonograms are designed to prevent)
What if I don’t want that machine put on my belly?
(Then don’t go to an abortion clinic to have forceps put on your uterus)
The abortionist routinely does a sonogram before and during the abortion. There is no extra cost to show the sonogram to the mother.
I am concerned that the abortionists will intentionally do an out-of-focus, poor quality sonogram to show the client, while hiding from her the higher quality sonograms used to guide the abortion. Some abortionists already do this, or so I have heard. Of course, the state can check on this, much the same way the state enforces liquor laws by sending a minor into a liquor store. Just send in a pregnant undercover agent, and look at the quality of the sonogram she is given. It should be easy enough to compare with the sonograms she gets from her legitimate OB-gyn doctor, or with reference sonograms.
It could be free if the pro life center across the street is set up for it and advertises it on the front door.
Good news.......Interesting that those that be do not want the Texas Governor to be our next President.
“Gotta give credit to our Governor (and next president) Rick Perry who pushed this through.”
LOL, the technology has been around for DECADES, yet Governor Perry NEVER lifted a finger...until now.
Those of us that live in Texas, particularly in Houston, know that it was State Senator Dan Patrick that carried this bill through. It is his bill and Perry knew better than not to sign it. But to give him credit for it, when his only other history on reproductive rights was mandating Gardasil (so little girls could have wild and crazy sex in their early teen years), is pushing things a bit.
With or without a law, there is no reason pro-life centers can’t do that.
The issue is making sure women get the information.
women will just start resorting to self abortion in states that continue to restrict abortion. ru-486 through the mail will start to be championed to women from pro-choice advocates as a way for easier access to women who live in restrictive states. Then they will be advised to go to nearest emergency room for safety reasons within a reasonable time period to get the proper checkup to finish the job and antibiotics. This will lead to even easier and relatively safe abortion for all without waiting periods and all the rest of it.
The women and girls are already getting and paying for the sonogram. No halfway competent doctor would instrumentalize the uterus without a real-time sonogram.
The sonogram is routinely done by a tech a couple of days before the abortion in order to stage the pregnancy (to determine how much to charge, too).
The routine external uterine sonogram done during the abortion helps the abortionist find the baby and decreases the chance he or she will puncture the uterine wall with the instruments inserted in the uterus. It also helps prove the abortion is complete and there’s no longer any living baby in the pelvis or bits in the uterus.
Can you imagine someone complaining because the doctor explained the xray showing their broken bone, the heart sonogram before the doc did a catheterization, or the results of the cath before a heart bypass? None of which are “elective.”
Texas has long had very explicit informed consent language mandated by State law and laid out by regulation for hysterectomy, sterilization, radiation therapy, and electric shock therapy.
However, the law will allow women and girls to have a sonogram done elsewhere (like a pregnancy assistance center), as long as the results are explained to them by the physician who will perform the abortion. That physician also has to make the heartbeat audible to the woman.
You obviously have no idea what you’re talking about. I am active in lobbying for pro-life bills in Austin and have witnessed the Governor’s advocacy for life.
First, as I’ve pointed out to you before, we don’t give tetanus shots so little boys can jump on rusty nails and we don’t give HPV vaccinations so boys and girls can have what you call “wild and crazy sex in their early teen years.”
Remember that the Governor helped push through parental notification in 1999.
He was very involved in the Woman’s Right to Know informed consent bill of 2003 (laying out specific information about the development of the baby, what an abortion is and creating a State list of services available to women who decide not to have an abortion - paid for with abortion licensing fees.
That year, we also passed our Prenatal Protection law that has been used to convict murderers and people who otherwise harm a woman, resulting in the death of her baby or babies.
These laws opened the door to parental consent in 2005, notarized parental consent, and a real decrease in teen abortion numbers (2009, the latest numbers available http://www.dshs.state.tx.us/chs/vstat/vs09/t33.shtm ).
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Your attitude towards women is disgusting. Do you really believe that women are so stupid that they are incapable of using any sort of contraceptive method? Or that they're so devoid of self-control that they spontaneously engage in physical acts with the nearest man without a thought as to whether they might get pregnant? The belief that women are stupid instinct-driven animals is best kept to some pro-abortion forum; it does not belong here.
That statement confused me a bit, until I realized that it was directed at another poster.
These laws opened the door to parental consent in 2005, notarized parental consent, and a real decrease in teen abortion numbers (2009, the latest numbers available http://www.dshs.state.tx.us/chs/vstat/vs09/t33.shtm ).
According to the CDC's MMWR, nearly 826,000 abortions were reported in 2008. That's a huge decrease from the 1.5 million annual abortions performed at the peak of the abortion industry, back in the 1980s. Do you think that the drop is (at least partly) because of informed consent laws?
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