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Posted on 09/29/2006 5:27:26 PM PDT by wagglebee
COLUMBUS, Ohio, September 29, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A US federal judge overturned an Ohio Law restricting the abortion pill RU-486, calling it “unconstitutionally vague” and that it failed to include a significant health exception. The law had intended to regulate RU-486 (or mifepristone) according to Food and Drug Administration (FDA) protocols, which would have made it illegal for doctors to prescribe the drug after the seventh week of pregnancy.
US District Judge Susan Dlott ruled Wednesday in agreement with Planned Parenthood that the law regulating mifepristone was “unconstitutionally vague”, and violated due process rights under the 14th amendment, which “prohibits laws so vague that persons of ordinary intelligence must guess at their meaning."
The Ohio act (H.B. 126) read “No person shall knowingly give, sell, dispense, administer, otherwise provide, or prescribe RU-486 (mifepristone) to another for the purpose of inducing an abortion . . . unless the person . . . is a physician, the physician satisfies all the
criteria established by federal law that a physician must satisfy in order to provide RU-486 (mifepristone) for inducing abortions, and the physician provides the RU-486 (mifepristone) to the other person for the purpose of inducing an abortion in accordance with all provisions of federal law that govern the use of RU-486 (mifepristone) for inducing abortions.”
Dlott declared in her Wednesday decision that “Physicians regulated by the Act, untrained in the law, could not possibly be expected to understand its requirements and prohibitions."
Dlott also justified her decision on the basis that the law provided no “health exception” for doctors to prescribe RU-486 beyond the FDA guidelines including to women more than seven weeks pregnant. Although Dlott previously held the opinion that all statutes regarding abortion were required to have a “health exception”, the 6th US Circuit Court of Appeals clarified on appeal that “an exception is only
necessary (and must only cover) circumstances where a statute poses a significant health risk.”
Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro, representing the state, contended that the law restricting RU-486 was "sensible and mainstream" and sought to protect women from a drug that may pose serious health risks. According to FDA reports, 8 women have died from RU-486, and there are over 600 reported cases of severe complications, including 513 cases of women requiring surgery with 235 emergency surgeries due to complications from the chemical abortifacient.
However, the case reveals that Planned Parenthood had rushed to save its affiliates in Ohio, since many abortionists do not comply with federal standards regarding the prescription of mifepristone set down by the FDA 6 years ago. In its arguments, Planned Parenthood stated that its doctors used several “evidence protocol” methods, which deviated from FDA standards regarding mifepristone. Ohio’s law intended to regulate RU-486 along the previously established FDA standards and would have forced all doctors to comply with federal law and the FDA standards for prescribing mifepristone.
It is not yet clear whether the state could appeal Dlott's decision to the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals, since that Court had already agreed with Dlott’s reasoning on appeal, and had remanded the case to her in case she could salvage parts of the law. Should the state attempt an appeal, it is likely that the fate of the Ohio law would eventually be decided by the US Supreme Court.
LifeSite readers may find a copy of the full ruling here from Howard Bashman’s How Appealing blog:
http://howappealing.law.com/PlannedParenthoodVsTaft.pdf
See Related LifeSite Coverage on RU-486 (Mifepristone)
FDA Reveals 607 Adverse Events Related to RU-486 Abortion, Including Five Deaths
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2006/jan/06010301.html
What can possibly be considered "vague" about seven weeks?!
Pro-Life Ping
Ohio Ping.
I personally have issues with politicians outlawing any medicines, but that's just me. As soon as they all go to medical school then I may change my mind.
RU-486 is to medicine what a hangman's noose is to neckties.
US District Judge Susan Dlott
"Judge, U. S. District Court of Southern District of Ohio, 1995-present "
Clinton Appointee. Gee. I wouldn't have guessed. Anyone? Bueller?
What exactly are the due process rights being violated in Amendment XIV under these restrictions (read: FDA recommended regulations) on RU-486??
Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
Section 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the several states according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each state, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the executive and judicial officers of a state, or the members of the legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such state, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such state.
Section 3. No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any state, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any state legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any state, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.
Section 4. The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any state shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void.
Section 5. The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.
Let's see, physicians have to be intimately familiar with the Controlled Substances Act (Federal and State), HIPAA, Medicare statutes, the Federal Tax Code, business law, tort law, sexual harrassment law, employment law, disability law,etc... This Ohio law is pretty straightforward, and this judge is an IDIOT.
Please FReepmail me if you would like to be added to, or removed from, the Pro-Life/Pro-Baby ping list...
I have a feeling Planned Parenthood abortionists know a lot less about all that than REAL physicians.
I'm waiting for the first lawsuit against the gov't. when the first woman dies of an infection What's the count up to now? 6-7?
She's married to Stan Chesley, one of Clinton's big-money trial lawyer donors.
Please FreepMail me if you want on or off my Pro-Life Ping List.
Thanks for the ping!
It's his moral and intellectual understanding that is vague. Or to put it a different way, his moral blinders cause his mental understanding to become darkened, and therefore "vague".
"Fetus" just means "unborn baby". Pro-aborts like that word since it sounds like something not human.
"I believe abortion is a personal choice within reason."
What are your parameters?
I am very glad you chose adoption and not abortion.
I hope you read a lot about the subject and come to the conclusion that killing any unborn baby, no matter how small, is nothing but murder. The pro-abortion crowd and the pro-euthanasia/doctor assisted suicide crowd use the same arguments.
They basically say that some humans are just not worthy enough to live.
If kids are taught that they are animals and are not expected to control their sexual urges, and even encouraged not to, then this promiscuity will create all kinds of unwanted pregnancies. The only way to really curb the abortion promoters is to promote chastity until marriage. This requires a huge change in our culture. But since the push towards randam rutting is of fairly recent origin, I am sure that the tide can be turned.
The natural family is the building block of human civilization. If it is destroyed, human civilization as we know it is toast.
You will also note that abortion promoters (and I'm 56 so I've been around a while) hate ANY limits on abortion like poison - whether it be stopping partial birth abortion, 24 hour waiting period, parental notification, releasing Planned Parenthood records, protesting at abortion clinics, stopping government funding of abortions, and so on. They want no limits at all. This is very telling. They sometimes claim they want abortion "safe, legal and rare". The "rare" part is a lie, and it is never safe for the baby, and often not safe for the mother.
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