Court to Hear Arguments on Whether an Abortion Ends Human Life

From Cybercast News Service:

(CNSNews.com) - A federal appeals court will hear arguments Wednesday in a potentially groundbreaking case that -- for the first time, according to attorneys -- addresses the question of whether an abortion terminates a human being's life.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit in St. Louis will consider a 2005 South Dakota law that requires abortionists to tell women that their abortion will terminate the life of a living human being.

The judges will hear Planned Parenthood's claim that a "statute designed to protect the rights, interests and health of pregnant women violates the abortion doctors' right of free speech," said attorney Harold J. Cassidy, who is representing pro-life pregnancy help centers which have joined the state as defendants in the case.

"Planned Parenthood has argued that the harm to the rights of these pregnant women was outweighed by the alleged harm to the interests of the abortion doctors," he said.

The 2005 modification to the informed consent law holds that an abortion ends "the life of a whole, separate, unique, living human being," and that a mother-child relationship, which exists "during the entire period of gestation," is terminated by an abortion.

The legislation requires doctors to inform women of this, in writing and in person two hours before an abortion, and also to disclose the medical risks of the procedure, including the possibility that it could lead to depression and an increased risk of suicidal thoughts.

A lawsuit brought by Planned Parenthood prompted a lower court to temporarily suspend the law.

The lower court said the legislation infringes doctors' First Amendment rights by requiring them to promote the state's ideology on an "unsettled medical, philosophical, theological, and scientific issue, that is, whether a fetus is a human being."

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(emphasis added)