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 The high court let stand a December appeals court ruling that
struck down the 2011 law as unconstitutional because it forced
doctors to voice the state's message discouraging abortion. The
action does not impact similar measures in other states.
North Carolina lawmakers had argued that requiring narrated
ultrasounds would provide crucial information to women making an
irrevocable decision, even if they chose to avert their eyes and not
listen to the explanation of the displayed fetus images.
Under the law, passed by North Carolina's Republican-led
legislature, physicians must perform an ultrasound, display the
sonogram and describe the fetus to women seeking abortions.
The Richmond, Virginia-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled
that the measure unduly burdened doctors' free speech rights under
the Constitution's First Amendment.
That court concluded the state clearly intended to "convince women
seeking abortions to change their minds or reassess their
decisions."
"The state cannot commandeer the doctor-patient relationship to
compel a physician to express its preference to the patient," the
appeals court stated.
Abortion rights advocates welcomed the Supreme Court's action.
"Doctors shouldn't be forced to humiliate a woman and disregard
their best medical judgment in order to provide an abortion," said
Jennifer Dalven, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's
Reproductive Freedom Project.
Advocates of abortion restrictions expressed disappointment.
"It makes no sense that federal courts would block a woman's access
to life-saving information, which results in over 70 percent of
women changing their minds about abortion after seeing their unborn
child on an ultrasound screen," said Tami Fitzgerald, executive
director of the North Carolina Values Coalition.
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The law came in a wave of state legislation passed in recent years
by conservative lawmakers seeking to chip away at the Supreme
Court's 1973 Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion nationwide.
The push is moving into the courts. Another U.S. appeals court last
week upheld key provisions of a Texas abortion law requiring clinics
to have certain hospital-grade facilities. Critics say the
regulatory hurdle was designed to shut down abortion providers.
The Supreme Court is also considering whether to hear a case
concerning separate abortion restrictions in Mississippi.
North Carolina lawmakers have pushed forward with other
restrictions, approving legislation this month requiring pregnant
women to wait three days between consulting a doctor and having an
abortion, among the nation's longest waiting periods.
(Reporting by Letitia Stein in Tampa and Lawrence Hurley in
Washington; Editing by Will Dunham)
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