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Abortion Constitutionality Court cases Free Speech Informed consent

Texas sonogram law can be enforced

The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals has allowed a Texas law requiring that doctors show sonograms to women seeking an abortion to be enforced. http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_TEXAS_ABORTION_LAW?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

A lower court had prevented the law from being enforced but the 5th Circuit has now reveresed that ruling. The court, in an opinion by Judge Edith Jones,  noted that states are permitted to require doctors to disclose truthful, nonmisleading and relevant information. As the AP story states:  

“‘Relevant’ informed consent may entail not only the physical and psychological risks to the expectant mother facing this `difficult moral decision,’ but also the state’s legitimate interests in `protecting the potential life within her,'” Chief Judge Edith H. Jones wrote in the appeals’ decision.

Here is a link to the court’s opinion. http://www.ca5.uscourts.gov/opinions/pub/11/11-50814-CV0.wpd.pdf

Richard M.

Richard Myers

Richard S. Myers, the Vice-President of UFL, is Professor of Law at Ave Maria School of Law, where he teaches Antitrust, Civil Procedure, Conflict of Laws, Constitutional Law, and Religious Freedom. He is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Kenyon College and earned his law degree at Notre Dame, where he won the law school's highest academic prize. He began his legal career by clerking for Judge John F. Kilkenny of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Professor Myers also worked for Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue in Washington, D.C. He taught at Case Western Reserve University School of Law and the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law before joining the Ave Maria faculty. He is a co-editor of St. Thomas Aquinas and the Natural Law Tradition: Contemporary Perspectives (Catholic University of American Press, 2004) and a co-editor of Encyclopedia of Catholic Social Thought, Social Science, and Social Policy (Scarecrow Press, 2007). He has also published extensively on constitutional law in law reviews and also testified before Congressional and state legislative hearings on life issues. Married to Mollie Murphy, who is also on the faculty at Ave Maria School of Law, they are the proud parents of six children - Michael, Patrick, Clare, Kathleen, Matthew, and Andrew. http://www.avemarialaw.edu/index.cfm?event=faculty.bio&pid=11705E7D4E0111010366